Big to small (Somewhat off topic)

I think it is because the economy is such that it just can't support large company inefficiency like it used to.

Most workers, at least in the US, simply don't work about half the time!

In a small company you can't get away with that, so small companies actually get some work out of their employess.

Gary Peek, Industrologic, Inc.

Anti-competitive practices are bad for consumers and defeat the natural regulation of the free market. If there is a right kind of government intervention, it is to punish illegal anti-competitive behavior.

The shenanigans that Microsoft got up to when it was at its worst were despicable. I am quite certain that without fear of government intervention, Intel would have gone that way, too.

There is nothing wrong with garnering huge market-share by out-competing your rivals, but when you employ dirty tactics to squash your competition and lock rivals out of the marketplace that is another thing altogether.

Just my $0.02.

--Mac

In a dynamic economy, companies come and go. Kodak and GM wither, Wal-Mart and Google grow, IBM and GE are forever.

Vertical integration was a fad decades ago, and didn't work very well.

Still does, if managed well.

Government intervention is necessary for a healthy business environment... the right kind of intervention, of course. Antitrust is still being enforced, not enough in my opinion.

Which trend?

John

I suspect the trend in question is big getting bigger. Above a certain size a company becomes unmanageable economically just like the centrally controlled communistic countries had become some time (decades) before they collapsed. BTW, many of the big "companies" nowadays are economically larger entities than many of the collapsed countries. I suspect knowing that collapse is the only outcome of the trend won't change a thing... the interested parties who have the control invariably tend to think the collapse will happen after their time (and this is typically correct).

Dimiter

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John Lark> >

Do you think so? Exxon, IBM, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, GE, Boeing... lots of huge companies are well-managed. They're big *because* they're well managed. GM and Ford are in for some serious adjusting, because of dumb management and dumber unions. And a lot of airlines, because there are too many players in a high-investment, low-margin business. But overall business is good, big and little, at least in the USA.

Yup.

Apart for the stupid dot.com fiasco, I don't see a trend for big companies to collapse. Do you?

John

The *have become* big because they *have been* well managed. Just wait until the person who brought them there is gone.

I am not Hari Seldon so I may be wrong on this - hopefully I am - but to see the effect you may have to wait for another decade or so. I predicted this for the communistic countries so keep in mind that I have a very good nose for communism creeping in... but then again, I am not a psychohistorian and need not be taken that seriously :-) .

Dimiter

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John Lark>