From rags to Richer: A business success story built on treating people well
economist.com
economist.com
I wish more people would adopt that attitude.
Meanwhile: https://www.economistgroup.com/results_and_governance/result...
Works fine here in Dillo (no JS support) and Firefox with NoScript.
---
JOE HELLER
True story, Word of Honor: Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.” Not bad! Rest in peace!
The way that Louis is taking care of his employee is nothing short of inspiring to me. As I understand from the videos, he's covering his salary during recovery, has supported him in the legal case, is accommodating his injuries by sourcing very expensive special equipment (microscope), and has visited him multiple times in the hospital.
He'll sit on camera saying "I'm a tough boss, I'm hard to work for" etc. While I'm certain that's true I just see it as high expectations + wanting to retain top performers. Nothing wrong with that when you put your money where your mouth is and treat your team like family IMO. I'd kill to have a boss like that because that's a person I'd be happy to get behind and support!
Like him or not, a huge factor in Trump's success is he's Trump. What you see is what you get, warts and all. It may be ugly by most people's standards, but it's authentic. A candidate keeping campaign promises? What?!?
One would think it would be easier to be authentic but apparently for politician/authenticity is the same as vampire/holy water.
Always doing the right thing often isn't the easiest path in the short term. However in the long term it's invaluable. One of the favorite phrases Jude Judy tossed around is "if you always tell the truth you don't have to remember!" - there's a lot of depth and truth there (and I'm sure she got it from somewhere else, I just heard her say it multiple times).
https://youtu.be/EHS2X-KoN_w (edited version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHS2X-KoN_w (full version)
I can't think of any other companies off the top of my head, but I'm hope there are plenty that I'm just ignorant about.
A company, of run properly, is a great way to get people together to accomplish a complex objective. A corporation is merely one of the tools they use.
If you think of people / companions (same roots) as, you know, actual humans, your business will typically be more effective.
I also think there's a broad divide in the world between those who think that corporations are dehumanizing and those who think of them as simply a group of people, like the dictionary definition of a company.
Same thing applies to government :)
It's why slavery is hopelessly unable to compete with free markets.
This sounds incredibly wrong, but obviously as someone who finds slavery morally reprehensible I would love for it to be true. There are so many industries that, as far as I can tell, could never have begun without slave labor - tobacco being the obvious one that created a boon for the burgeoning United States. Sugar cane in Brazil is a modern example. Chocolate from the Ivory Coast is also interesting, because there is fair trade chocolate you can buy - the fair trade chocolate is a rounding error compared to the industry as a whole.
If you're trying to produce a product in bulk that doesn't require highly trained employees, how would slavery not help your bottom line?
I know it's not the conventional wisdom, but read up on the economies of the US free Northern states and the slave Southern states. The failing southern economy juxtaposed with the prosperous north was a major factor leading to war.
> how would slavery not help your bottom line?
1. slaves hate you, and would like to kill you
2. slaves will do as little as possible
3. slaves will not make any constructive suggestions
4. slaves will run away
5. slaves will require armed guards
6. slaves will sabotage your operation at every opportunity
7. slaves will spit in your food (and much, much worse)
8. slave economies tend to make it illegal to educate slaves, even illegal to teach them to read, making them very unproductive
9. you wouldn't want to be in a room with a few of them without armed guards
I am not saying slavery is always the best way to get an edge in a competitive market, but sometimes it is. Otherwise, why would people still be using it today? There are literally billions of dollars to be made every year in multiple industries if what you're saying is true.
Generally because there is something else going on that interferes with the free market operating.
There's a good reason that slave economies used to be commonplace, and when free markets appeared they disappeared, one by one.
Do you think the US became a superpower because of slave labor? (Recall that the wealth produced by the slaves was demolished in the Civil War.) In example after example, countries that ditched slavery and turned to free markets became much, much wealthier.
I feel like China, while an extremely complicated example, is a good counterpoint to this.
I appreciate the discussion, but I think we just disagree.
Here's an overview of the switch to a market economy:
If the United States is an 8 out of 10 on the free market scale, what would you consider China?
For another example, look at North vs South Korea. Same country, an arbitrary line drawn, one prospers the other doesn't. East and West Germany, same thing. North and South US before the Civil War, same thing.
I understand (or at least I think I understand) your point about how by becoming freer they have prospered more, but I think it is so much more complicated than that when it comes to China. I realize it's always dangerous thinking to say something is an exception; but China is an exception. Yes, China reaped many rewards by opening up trade, but they clamped down on many things simultaneously - essentially trying to have the benefits of free trade with the convenience of a draconian state.
This is going in a slightly different direction than I intended. My original point was about slave labor for specific industries (as opposed to countries), and I feel my point stands that some industries benefit from it. On the Ivory Coast of Africa, they have both fair trade and slave labor chocolate - the slave labor chocolate absolutely dominates the market. My next point was that China didn't become a super power simply by becoming a free market (and I contend is still is not a free market, although it is freer than it was 50 years ago), but by hoarding natural resources, manipulating their currency, exploiting workers (their own and from Africa), disallowing international competitors internally unless specifically sanctioned by the Chinese government (so essentially China decides who is allowed to participate), and other bullying tactics.
While I think China has a much more prosperous future than the Soviet Union did and they've managed their internal affairs much better (although I do think shit is going to hit the fan there soon in a very bad way), they became a superpower first and foremost by strong-arm tactics. Opening the market with the US and the rest of the world just provided them the money to do so, and we have bent to their will more times than not.
This has been fun, but we really need to agree to disagree at this point :)
Something I got from a book on negotiating:
It doesn't matter how good of a negotiator you are, if you develop a reputation for being a jerk, you're going to fail.
Why?
Because for every room you're in being the best negotiator, your reputation is in ten, negotiating the other way and talking you out of deals you didn't even know about.
Conversely, if you develop a reputation for being a reliable partner and a fair dealer, then your reputation will do the hard work for you. People will talk you into deals without your input, because they want to work with people like that.