- McDonalds is a real estate company
- General Electric is really a bank
- Harvard University is really a hedge fund
- Lebron James is actually an advertising spokesperson
Are the twisted examples above really how we categorize companies/celebrities?
It makes no sense to categorize McDonalds as a real estate company because its cost structure, hiring policies, marketing efforts, and everything else about the company in no way reflect the components of a traditional marketing company.
If "LeBron James" was a publicly traded company and you categorized him as an advertising spokesperson, would you then take him out of the gym and have him spend 4 years pursing an MBA?
No. Neither would the shareholders. Also, he's a lot more successful than a lot of MBAs. The whole point is that maybe the preconceived notions and categorizations aren't all there is to it.