Free Enterprise - Great American Companies Lost
. . . ongoing student research (evolving)
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Corporate Adolescence
- We are the young, arrogant entrepreneurs.
- We are stronger and more nimble.
- We have more energy and require less sleep.
- We love to party all night and take risks.
- We are invincible!
- We have no fear.
- We can do anything.
- We know everything.
- Bad things only happen to other people.
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- We want a quick profit.
- Sometimes we cashed in our chips while we were ahead.
Enough of this hard work;
Time to go outside and play.
- Sometimes we just keep on playing our chips
(until we've lost everything).
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Adolescence takes its toll:
(Examples)
The above links are to external pages at
http://en.wikipedia.org.
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Bad Decisions
- They failed to keep pace.
- They sat back on their laurels.
- They did not keep up with the changing trends.
- They did not listen to their customers.
- They saw no reason to change, to improve, to ....
- They assumed life would go on forever.
- They tried (but failed) to keep up with the younger generation.
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- Montgomery Wards was too slow to follow the when the customers migrated to the suburbs.
- W.T.Grant got caught with their "99-year" downtown leases and could not move to the suburbs.
- In its pursuit of growth and expansion, F.W.Woolworth's failed to pay attention to its roots.
- Westinghouse Electric tried about everything with an increasing lack of continuity.
- Circuit City made bad decisions on many fronts and lost many major lawsuits.
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They succumbed to bad decisions:
(Examples)
The above links are to external pages at
http://en.wikipedia.org.
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Murder and Acquisition
- Add a complementary company
- Add a critical supplier for vertical integration security
- Ego driven growth
- Take over a competitor1
- Wipe out a competitor
- Acquire needed or desired technology (patents)
- Make partial-birth acquisitions
- Hostile takeover
- Dismantle and salvage (Chop shop )
- Loot for personal gain of executives
1They may never know what hit them.
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Added a complementary company
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Added a key supplier for vertical integration
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Added for ego-driven growth
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Looted by dishonest executives
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Shanghaied by Pirates;
Made galley slaves of pirates;
Death by Proxy:
(Examples)
The above links are to external pages at
http://en.wikipedia.org.
Notes:
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K-Mark declared bankruptcy to eliminate debt and did a leverage buyout of Sears (renaming the new combination "Sears Holding Company")
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McDonnell Douglas liquidated most of its tangible assets and did a leverage buyout of Boeing (re-identifying the new combination as "[MD symbol] Boeing")
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Captured, tortured, imprisoned:
(Examples)
The above links are to external pages at
http://en.wikipedia.org.
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Maturity and Old Age
- They slowed down.
- The company plateaued and stagnated.
- They grew tired and lost interest.
- The owners wanted to retire.
- They drifted into obscurity.
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- Some tried to hand the company over to the next generation
which did not share the vision and passion of the founders.
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- Some sold their company
to someone without the same vision and passion
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- Some hired others to do the work of leading the company
but the vision, passion, and experience did not transfer.
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- Some drifted into obscurity
and faded away.
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Maturity takes its toll:
(Examples)
The above links are to external pages at
http://en.wikipedia.org.
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