It upsets me when I see companies in our industry making stupid moves. We should be collaborating to work together with open platforms and solving customer needs – not doing stupid, unproductive stuff…
I was reading an article on the Dow-duPont merger this past weekend in the Philadelphia Inquirer and came across this quote that rang true with some of the things I am seeing recently:
“It takes an enormous effort and a lot of time and a large infrastructure, especially human infrastructure, to create value in a large company like DuPont. The financial community doesn’t know how to do that. Hedge-fund managers know how to extract value from a company, and leave an empty shell, so they can build their houses in the Hamptons.” – Abraham Lenoff, chemical engineering professor at the University of Delaware
I’ve talked in the past of how we want RunSignUp to be a company built for the long run on the principle of a Three Legged Stool, where all of the stakeholders – owners, employees and customers all have voices and collaborate to help each other. I did not really know what a long term advantage it would be for our little community.
Hi Bob, I’d enjoy reading more about this and how it can impact the athletic industry. I saw your post about the Ipico letter and it led me to your blog. I’ve always felt, it appears, much like you do about business: you have to give away as much as possible in order to succeed. What you are giving away adds value to the total business proposition that you offer a customer. Google and youtube were the leaders of this. People now expect stuff for free as part of any business transaction. I’ve always said that my industry (event timing and management) has a lot of operators and not so many marketers. Operators are territory/zero sum based. What they have is theirs and one should not dare to try and take it. Marketers see opportunities in competition. I sold for Fedex in my business career. The best thing I could see when I walked into a business was UPS labeled boxes in the warehouse. I knew they had business that I could present a value proposition to. Many see the competition and run! I always respect your company for being open about your values and mission. Thank you! Mark
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amen!