DesertFox
09-13-2006, 07:54 AM
Thomas Lifson
The American Thinker
13 Sep 06
It is sad to watch a once-great company decline. Jobs are sacrificed, historic facilities closed, and an atmosphere of failure and fear usually permeates the surviving operations. When a company needs to sell-off profitable crown jewels to sustain the lagging less profitable pieces, it does not portend future happiness.
But when the situation is compounded by hereditary management succession based on family control, and when the hapless scion put into Daddy’s office leads the firm into blunder after blunder, squandering the resources built up by previous generations, elements of tragedy enter the picture. When the bloodline-based boss is both obsessed with a private agenda and easily led into foolish moves because of his poor understanding of business fundamentals, danger levels rise. Vulnerable to fad-based moves and prey to fast-talking investment bankers, polished consultants and the flattery of subordinates, stumbles and pratfalls accumulate.
The story begins to take on the character of a parable.
Such is the case of the once-great, once-respected New York Times Company under the “leadership” of Arthur Ochs “Pinch” Sulzberger. After squandering corporate resources on a very foolish bet on the future of newsprint in New England, and after committing to a lavish monument of a headquarters, the company needs to generate more cash than ongoing operations are likely to provide. The divestment scalpel is starting to cut into muscle, not fat.
More (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5850)
The American Thinker
13 Sep 06
It is sad to watch a once-great company decline. Jobs are sacrificed, historic facilities closed, and an atmosphere of failure and fear usually permeates the surviving operations. When a company needs to sell-off profitable crown jewels to sustain the lagging less profitable pieces, it does not portend future happiness.
But when the situation is compounded by hereditary management succession based on family control, and when the hapless scion put into Daddy’s office leads the firm into blunder after blunder, squandering the resources built up by previous generations, elements of tragedy enter the picture. When the bloodline-based boss is both obsessed with a private agenda and easily led into foolish moves because of his poor understanding of business fundamentals, danger levels rise. Vulnerable to fad-based moves and prey to fast-talking investment bankers, polished consultants and the flattery of subordinates, stumbles and pratfalls accumulate.
The story begins to take on the character of a parable.
Such is the case of the once-great, once-respected New York Times Company under the “leadership” of Arthur Ochs “Pinch” Sulzberger. After squandering corporate resources on a very foolish bet on the future of newsprint in New England, and after committing to a lavish monument of a headquarters, the company needs to generate more cash than ongoing operations are likely to provide. The divestment scalpel is starting to cut into muscle, not fat.
More (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5850)