OT: A "decomposed" business structure

Don Y · 2012-05-12T06:34:26+00:00

Hi,I suspect many folks have telecommuted, worked off-site,etc. As regular employees, subcontractors, etc. And,possibly with many *other* such INDEPENDENT people atthe same time.But, in my experience, this has always been for *a*"company" (client/employer). A real brick and mortaroutfit (though I've worked for some "solo" operators,as well).What I would like to explore are the issues associated withan entire company built with no real, "physical presence"(other than it's legal point of incorporation).In other words, imagine the "accountant" being in Florida(I'm left-pondian so its easier for me to reference locationshere :-/ ), the purchasing agent in Washington, engineeringstaff in Illinois and Texas, manufacturing in California,etc. (use your imagination)There are few real needs for face to face meetings in mostmodern organizations -- aside from sheep-counters who canonly justify their existence by pointing to the flock theyare tending :>And, **any** sort of documents can surely be on the recipient'sdesk "instantly" (subject to network availability).There's no reason for components ordered by the purchasing agentin Washington *not* to be deliverable to the manufacturingfacility in California. Nor for the "bill" to be sent to theaccountant in Florida. A customer cares not whether his deviceis shipped from location X or location Y -- so long as it arrivesat *his* location.Etc.(are there any logistical limitations that I am overlookingor trivializing?)The point that most immediately comes to mind is one of"trust". This is true in all business relationships wherea party is "unsupervised" (is that consultant *really*working on my project? or, is he off playing golf? willhe meet his delivery date? will I discover this before its"too late"? etc.). I tend to have a pretty naive/simpleway of looking at this sort of thing: if you don't trustyour suppliers/clients/customers/etc. then why are youdoing *business* with them?What other issues might come up?[note...

krw 14 years ago

How much of that $1M marginal cost? A $20M company making $1M machines is kinda far-fetched, no? Where do they get the financing to just buy the components to make it?

How do you test the device, then?

How did they build the first one?

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Don Y 14 years ago

No idea. I just worked for them -- but, not as an accountant! :>

Again, no idea. I just know what the machines sold for and the company's annual sales.

You get friendly with a customer (this is surprisingly easy to do!) and use *their* machine. As they are often likely to want an enhancement/improvement/whatever (since they've already bought the thing!), this is relatively easy to get their cooperation.

No idea -- you'd have to ask him!

How did Kurzweil build his first reading machine? Grants? VC? Philanthropic gifts??

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krw 14 years ago

However, the discussion then went on to, "The human auditory system is amazing, but not so much after being forced through one mic and one speaker and a 3 KHz comm channel." I corrected that to 4kHz audio, 8kHz sample.

Are you saying that they don't exist? I don't have dial up, but my DSL line at my AL house sure won't do "theater quality" anything, and the 3G, when it works, at this house is even worse (haven't figured out how to get the DSL line working here - something's odd in the wiring).

... and why are you worrying about what other people feel? You obviously don't have enough on your plate.

Depends on how much they're paid. ;-) No, I'd probably find something better to do if I weren't getting paid to go to work.

It's been a while, but mostly because that sort of thing doesn't seem to be "normal" anymore. I used to have people from work over almost every weekend in the summer (pool party) and our house was where the singles with no family in the area would come for Thanksgiving.

Get real. They're *not* slaves.

We got married when I was 18. I finished college, in four years, while working. I highly doubt that I am the only one to have done so. No, I don't have much sympathy, either, on so many levels.

No, it's just weird to even think of such a thing. Absurd, even.

No, it's fun even if they're paying me to do it. Forty (or sixty) is usually enough, though, unless you're married to your cow-orker.

Or perhaps those who you haven't spent enough time with.

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