On 2002-10-08 16:28, Irishman wrote:
I'm reminded of an interesting observation I have discussed with others in the past, I think perhaps from Scott Adams (aka Dilbert's creator).
In engineering, first comes the idea man. He has an idea for widgets, and he's technically competent in designing the widgets, and he makes a company to make widgets. And he hires some good technical people to help make widgets. And they make good widgets, and the widgets sell, because they're good. Then after a while, the business is growing and competition in the widget business grows. Then the company gets accountants in to help make things efficient and keep the business healthy. And slowly the accountant types (and marketing types) take over, and become more interested in making money than making widgets. Till the company becomes a big bloated monster that doesn't care about the innovations from the technical folks because they interfere with the "way things are done" and the current widgets and marketing.
I think there's a lot of truth to that. Ayn Rand summarized the ideal of capitalism as "trading your best effort for the best effort of others." Too often, companies turn it into trading their most lucrative or expedient efforts rather than their best, which is not the same thing. I've seen a number of instances of it.
Is this off-topic enough? Surely we can provide an example, say, from the consumer telescope industry.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.