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CEO follows Ayn Rand's advice, mysteriously fails as businessman

Started by Cain, February 18, 2014, 10:09:58 AM

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Cain

Salon has an interesting profile on Eddie Lampert, the CEO of Sears and creator of " a kind of Lord of the Flies death match"  between Sears managers to boost productivity.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/ayn_rand_loving_ceo_destroys_his_empire_partner/

QuoteAs his company was descending into Randian mayhem, Lampert continued to cheerfully inform stockholders that his revolutionary ideas would soon produce earth-shattering results. Reality: Sears has lost half its value in five years. Since 2010, Sears has closed more than half of its stores. Sears Holdings is financially distressed and Lampert's own hedge fund has reduced its stake in the company. The Sears store in Oakland, California, open for business with boarded-up windows, has even been cited for urban blight.

Junkenstein

Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Reginald Ret

Oh man I love this! Fucken economist/business school idiots finally got an example to follow!
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

This is what happens when you base your business plan on a WORK OF UTOPIAN FICTION WRITTEN BY A PERSON WHO HASN'T GOT A SINGLE CLUE ABOUT RUNNING A BUSINESS. :lol:

It doesn't even sound like a good idea in writing. It's like basing a business plan on Watership Down.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

Hey hey hey now, hold on a minute.

There are much worse books to base your business model on than "Watership Down".

Junkenstein

To be fair, I'm trying to think of a worse book than Rand's to base a business on.

I'm struggling.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

Twilight.  Mein Kampf.  Org's Odyssey. A Million Little Pieces.

Cainad (dec.)

Quote from: Cain on February 18, 2014, 03:35:49 PM
Hey hey hey now, hold on a minute.

There are much worse books to base your business model on than "Watership Down".

:lulz:

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Cain on February 18, 2014, 03:35:49 PM
Hey hey hey now, hold on a minute.

There are much worse books to base your business model on than "Watership Down".

:mittens:
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

Quote from: Cain on February 18, 2014, 04:04:01 PM
Twilight.  Mein Kampf.  Org's Odyssey. A Million Little Pieces.

I'm not sure about that. The business practices extolled in Mein Kampf worked for a given value of "worked". A million little pieces is based on the most effective buisiness practice of the past ??? years - Lying your ass off.

So for those reasons alone I'd have to rate them objectively better business books than Rand's.

Twilight, while also terrible invokes the marketing magic that is "Sparkly shit sells" so that probably means it's better than Rand too.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

East Coast Hustle

Quote from: Cain on February 18, 2014, 03:35:49 PM
Hey hey hey now, hold on a minute.

There are much worse books to base your business model on than "Watership Down".

I'm pretty sure that's what my pizzeria was modeled on and it stayed afloat for 4 years with WAY less capital loss than Sears.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

Cain

See?

Which also, incidentally, makes you far more qualified to be the CEO of Sears as well.  Just mentioning, since I think there may be a job going there soon...

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Nigel's Red Volvulus Skin Sacs on February 18, 2014, 03:14:25 PM
This is what happens when you base your business plan on a WORK OF UTOPIAN FICTION WRITTEN BY A PERSON WHO HASN'T GOT A SINGLE CLUE ABOUT RUNNING A BUSINESS. :lol:

It doesn't even sound like a good idea in writing. It's like basing a business plan on Watership Down.

Isn't it amazing that you can treat people right and make money, but when you treat them badly, you eventually wind up losing your ass?

And isn't it amazing that this seems to be viewed as a new discovery every 30 years or so, and then is usually promptly ignored?

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on February 19, 2014, 03:33:06 PM
Quote from: Nigel's Red Volvulus Skin Sacs on February 18, 2014, 03:14:25 PM
This is what happens when you base your business plan on a WORK OF UTOPIAN FICTION WRITTEN BY A PERSON WHO HASN'T GOT A SINGLE CLUE ABOUT RUNNING A BUSINESS. :lol:

It doesn't even sound like a good idea in writing. It's like basing a business plan on Watership Down.

Isn't it amazing that you can treat people right and make money, but when you treat them badly, you eventually wind up losing your ass?

And isn't it amazing that this seems to be viewed as a new discovery every 30 years or so, and then is usually promptly ignored?
People seem hardwired for zero-sum games. 'If somebody isn't losing I couldn't possibly be winning.'.
The only way to feel safe about your own good fortune is to beat some other people down, otherwise it feels like the universe is making a mistake that will be corrected as soon as She notices. Oh Yes! Corrected with a Vengeance!
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: :regret: on February 19, 2014, 06:47:46 PM
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on February 19, 2014, 03:33:06 PM
Quote from: Nigel's Red Volvulus Skin Sacs on February 18, 2014, 03:14:25 PM
This is what happens when you base your business plan on a WORK OF UTOPIAN FICTION WRITTEN BY A PERSON WHO HASN'T GOT A SINGLE CLUE ABOUT RUNNING A BUSINESS. :lol:

It doesn't even sound like a good idea in writing. It's like basing a business plan on Watership Down.

Isn't it amazing that you can treat people right and make money, but when you treat them badly, you eventually wind up losing your ass?

And isn't it amazing that this seems to be viewed as a new discovery every 30 years or so, and then is usually promptly ignored?
People seem hardwired for zero-sum games. 'If somebody isn't losing I couldn't possibly be winning.'.
The only way to feel safe about your own good fortune is to beat some other people down, otherwise it feels like the universe is making a mistake that will be corrected as soon as She notices. Oh Yes! Corrected with a Vengeance!

This seems to be especially true in the United States.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.