7 ms·

Companies haven't been well run in decades, if ever, especially American ones. I've worked for about a dozen companies in my 30+ year career. None have been wel

Companies haven't been well run in decades, if ever, especially American ones. I've worked for about a dozen companies in my 30+ year career. None have been well run, most are out of business. I do design services now, and have worked with dozens of companies through that, and the pattern continues. We don't have leaders, or people that can make hard decisions, or think for themselves. They all follow the same book of the day business trends. If you do think outside the box you aren't a team player and are rocking the boat.

ethbr1 17d ago
> I've worked for about a dozen companies in my 30+ year career. None have been well run, most are out of business I did tech consulting early in my career, so got to see a large number of companies as I was working for them. Some good, some bad. There were a few reliable characteristics about the good ones though: - Distilled corporate culture into learnable points, ensured everyone learned those, and then reliably used and referenced them in the context of everyday business decisions - Centralized strategy, decentralized tactics. Execs cane up with strategic targets, then implementers were free to design their own solutions to deliver those - Had an expectation of employee-initiated internal mobility (team switching) and used it as a management evaluation signal - Had a strong internal process for recognizing when they promoted / hired a bad manager (i.e. they made sure a bad manager with a good team didn't look good)
- HDThoreaun 17d ago
  Amazon?
  - ethbr1 16d ago
    I'm not sure about the last two, but Amazon nails the first two in spades. Bezos made it abundantly clear the company was about efficiency and scale... and fuck anything else (employees included).
badpun 17d ago
Most follow the herd, but there are often noticeable exceptions. See e.g. how Toyota refused to jump on the electric vehicle bandwagon and stuck to hybrid engines. Or Mazda, which didn't even do hybrid.
- Gud 17d ago
  Uhm, seems to me the companies that are spearheading the rollout of electric vehicles will be still existing in the future. BYD will dominate, not GM.
- wil421 17d ago
  Toyota made un-Toyota like mistakes on the new v6 twin turbo. They are not immune anymore.
- LgWoodenBadger 17d ago
  Toyota is (was?), all by their lonesome selves, almost 100% bet-the-farm on hydrogen vehicles instead of electric.
- dalyons 17d ago
  Is that supposed to be an example of a good decision? Outside the US hybrids are quickly becoming irrelevant. The decision is looking like it will cost Toyota the crown
  - tzs 17d ago
    Worldwide outside the US BEVs are about 16% of new car sales (BEVs + PHEVs are about 25%). Hybrids are still going to be relevant worldwide for quite a while.
    - dalyons 17d ago
      The peak of ICE car sales (which includes hybrids) was in 2017 and it’s been downhill since then, and it’s going to plummet from here as EV share keeps growing rapidly. Bev share is growing significantly faster than hybrid. I personally wouldn’t be betting my company on a rapidly shrinking market

ethbr1 17d ago

> I've worked for about a dozen companies in my 30+ year career. None have been well run, most are out of business I did tech consulting early in my career, so got to see a large number of companies as I was working for them. Some good, some bad. There were a few reliable characteristics about the good ones though: - Distilled corporate culture into learnable points, ensured everyone learned those, and then reliably used and referenced them in the context of everyday business decisions - Centralized strategy, decentralized tactics. Execs cane up with strategic targets, then implementers were free to design their own solutions to deliver those - Had an expectation of employee-initiated internal mobility (team switching) and used it as a management evaluation signal - Had a strong internal process for recognizing when they promoted / hired a bad manager (i.e. they made sure a bad manager with a good team didn't look good)

HDThoreaun 17d ago
Amazon?
- ethbr1 16d ago
  I'm not sure about the last two, but Amazon nails the first two in spades. Bezos made it abundantly clear the company was about efficiency and scale... and fuck anything else (employees included).

badpun 17d ago

Most follow the herd, but there are often noticeable exceptions. See e.g. how Toyota refused to jump on the electric vehicle bandwagon and stuck to hybrid engines. Or Mazda, which didn't even do hybrid.

Gud 17d ago
Uhm, seems to me the companies that are spearheading the rollout of electric vehicles will be still existing in the future. BYD will dominate, not GM.
wil421 17d ago
Toyota made un-Toyota like mistakes on the new v6 twin turbo. They are not immune anymore.
LgWoodenBadger 17d ago
Toyota is (was?), all by their lonesome selves, almost 100% bet-the-farm on hydrogen vehicles instead of electric.
dalyons 17d ago
Is that supposed to be an example of a good decision? Outside the US hybrids are quickly becoming irrelevant. The decision is looking like it will cost Toyota the crown
- tzs 17d ago
  Worldwide outside the US BEVs are about 16% of new car sales (BEVs + PHEVs are about 25%). Hybrids are still going to be relevant worldwide for quite a while.
  - dalyons 17d ago
    The peak of ICE car sales (which includes hybrids) was in 2017 and it’s been downhill since then, and it’s going to plummet from here as EV share keeps growing rapidly. Bev share is growing significantly faster than hybrid. I personally wouldn’t be betting my company on a rapidly shrinking market