Of course it's true that not all corporations maximize long-run profits; but the notion that people -- employees, consumers, suppliers, etc. -- benefit from companies not maximizing profits is just plain wrong. BBC American would probably not agree with that sentiment, but he's noticed something interesting: endless punishing of incompetence, which gives Wal-Mart a large profit advantage, can make a Wal-Mart job far less of a fiefdom than more respectable workplaces:
Oh, and someone asked which was worse, my real job or my Wal-Mart job. It is a tossup, but I'd actually say my real job at the newspaper. You sort of expect Wal-Mart to be a disaster area. My real job is at a paper owned by a Fortune 500 company and you'd think that working with college graduates and professionals would be easier. Wrongo-bongo.It is worse than Wal-Mart, because some people have been promoted past their ignorance point. Wal-Mart fires fools fairly quickly, because they usually screw up so much they don't dare let the profits slip. For all Wal-Mart's stupidity, they are SCARY SERIOUS about the money. Department manager slacking off? Back to the sales floor and someone else has that pricing gun and handheld computer.
Posted by Kevin on October, 11 2005 at 03:34 PM
