“Companies often become victims of their own mythologies.” CompanyVictimMythology Author:James Surowiecki
“The desire for reinvention seems to arise most often when companies hear the siren call of synergy and start to expand beyond their core businesses.” SeemsDesireCompanyCoreAriseSirensSynergyReinvention Author:James Surowiecki
“If being the biggest company was a guarantee of success, we'd all be using IBM computers and driving GM cars.” IfsCompanyCarComputerDrivingGuaranteesIbm Author:James Surowiecki
“If companies tell us more, insider trading will be worth less.” IfsCompanyTradingInsidersInsider Trading Author:James Surowiecki
“If private-equity firms are as good at remaking companies as they claim, they don't need tax loopholes to make money.” IfsNeedsCompanyTaxesClaimsMaking MoneyFirmEquityLoopholesPrivate Equity Author:James Surowiecki
“The stock market has an insidious effect on C.E.O.s' moods, because of its impact not just on their companies but on their own bank accounts.” CompanyEffectsAccountsImpactMoodInsidiousBank Accounts Author:James Surowiecki
“Steve Jobs was rare: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company's fortunes. Contrary to corporate mythology, most C.E.O.s could be easily replaced, if not by your average Joe, then by your average executive vice-president. But Jobs genuinely earned the label of superstar.” IfsJobsPresidentCompanyHugeImpactFortuneAverageVicesContraryMythologyLabelsCorporateExecutivesReplacedVice PresidentSuperstarAverage Joe Author:James Surowiecki
“Companies have long gathered data to break down their customer base into specific segments. Now political parties have become adept at micro-targeting, too, using data on shopping habits, leisure activities, voting histories, charity donations, and so on, in order to pinpoint likely supporters and the type of appeal most likely to win them over.” LongPoliticalOrderWinningPartyCompanyBreakTypeHabitActivityCharityCustomersDataAppealsVotingShoppingLeisureSupporterBreaking DownPolitical PartiesDonationAdeptLeisure Activities Author:James Surowiecki
“Critics of consumer capitalism like to think that consumers are manipulated and controlled by those who seek to sell them things, but for the most part it's the other way around: companies must make what consumers want and deliver it at the lowest possible price.” ThinkingWayWantCompanyCapitalismSellsCriticsConsumersControlledLowest Author:James Surowiecki
“Disasters redistribute money from taxpayers to construction workers, from insurance companies to homeowners, and even from those who once lived in the destroyed city to those who replace them. It's remarkable that this redistribution can happen so smoothly and quickly, with devastated regions reinventing themselves in a matter of months.” MatterHappensCitiesCompanyMonthsWorkersDisasterDestroyedRemarkableRegionsConstructionTaxpayersDevastatedInsurance CompaniesReinventingHomeownersConstruction Workers Author:James Surowiecki
“Discussions of health care in the U.S. usually focus on insurance companies, but, whatever their problems, they're not the main driver of health-care inflation: providers are.” ProblemCareCompanyFocusHealth CareDiscussionDriversInflationProvidersInsurance Companies Author:James Surowiecki
“If someone really wants my company's business, why shouldn't he be able to do everything he can - including paying me off - to get that business? Because bribery encourages people to make decisions based on the wrong criteria, which means in the business world that it distorts the efficient allocation of resources.” PeopleIfsWorldWantMeanAbleDecisionCompanyResourcesIncludingEfficientCriteriaBusiness WorldBriberyAllocation Author:James Surowiecki
“If you thought the advent of the Internet, the spread of cheap and efficient information technology, and the growing fragmentation of the consumer market were all going to help smaller companies thrive at the expense of the slow-moving giants of the Fortune 500, apparently you were wrong.” IfsHelpingMovingCompanyTechnologyGrowingInformationInternetFortuneSpreadConsumersGiantsThriveExpensesEfficientInformation TechnologyAdventFragmentation Author:James Surowiecki
“If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company. In the N.F.L., nothing like this happens; the players, though rich, are just working stiffs like the rest of us.” IfsGivingHappensValuesChanceCompanyRichPlayerShareApplesGoogleStock Options Author:James Surowiecki
“In a world where companies increasingly know about their business in real time, it makes no sense that public reporting mostly follows the old quarterly schedule. Companies sit on vital information until reporting day, at which point the market goes crazy.” KnowsWorldRealCompanyCrazyInformationSchedules Author:James Surowiecki
“In the days when corporate downsizing was all the rage, Wall Street took a lot of flak for judging companies too harshly and setting the bar for corporate performance so high that executives felt their only option was to slash payrolls.” FeltCompanyStreetsJudgingWallPerformancesRageBarsSettingSettingsCorporateExecutivesPayrollDownsizing Author:James Surowiecki
“In the struggle between capital and labor, more often than not capital has won, because the real source of value for most companies has historically been the hard assets that they owned and controlled.” RealHardValuesCompanyStruggleSourceLaborControlledAssets Author:James Surowiecki
“Life insurance became popular only when insurance companies stopped emphasizing it as a good investment and sold it instead as a symbolic commitment by fathers to the future well-being of their families.” WellsFatherCompanyCommitmentInvestmentWell BeingSymbolicInsurance Companies Author:James Surowiecki
“Nike used to be known as Blue Ribbon Sports. What's now Sara Lee used to be Consolidated Foods. And Exxon was once Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. These were name changes that worked. But for all the ones that do, there are 10 or 20 that don't.” UsedNamesSportsCompanyKnownStandardsBlueOilUsed To BeJerseyNew JerseyRibbonsNikeOil CompaniesStandard OilName Changes Author:James Surowiecki
“Self-dealing, essentially, occurs when managers run companies to line their own pockets instead of those of the companies' owners. It's been a perennial problem in American capitalism and became a real dilemma when America moved toward a model in which corporations would be run by professional managers who had only small ownership stakes.” RealSelfProblemWould BeRunningAmericaLinesCompanyModelsCapitalismMovedManagersCorporationsPocketsOwnersStakesOwnershipDilemmaAmerican Capitalism Author:James Surowiecki
“There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of owners in a private company rather than by the dispersed and often uninterested shareholders of a public corporation.” ReasonNumbersCompanyCorporationsOwnersShareholdersSmall NumbersUninterested Author:James Surowiecki
“To be sure, if you watch CNBC all day long you'll pick up some interesting news about particular companies and the economy as a whole. Unfortunately, to get to the useful information, you have to wade through reams of useless stuff, with little guidance on how to distinguish between the two.” IfsLittlesLongTwoWholeStuffInterestingCompanyWatchesEconomyInformationParticularNewsPicksUselessGuidanceWadeSome InterestingUseful InformationUseless Stuff Author:James Surowiecki
“What an economy really wants, after all, is not more investment per se but better investment. It wants capital to flow to companies that will create value - not in the form of a rising stock price but in the form of more goods for less cost, more jobs, and rising wages - by enhancing productivity.” WantJobsFormValuesCompanyEconomyCostFlowInvestmentProductivityRisingGoodsWagesStock Price Author:James Surowiecki
