Killing our Economy

Today my deep thought is on our great nation and its economy. It is always a favorite saying of the management that the workers need to work harder, work longer hours, and be more productive. But the fact is the workers in the "Good Old USA" do work longer hours and produce more than their counterparts in Europe.

Here our workers think a two-week vacation is normal if you have been on the job for a year. In Europe if a worker doesn't get a months vacation he or she say they are totally over worked and taken advantage of by top management. Many of the top managers normally take the entire summer off. Our workers, even those at minimum wage produce products at a faster rate than the same minimum wage workers in European Countries. It seems to me when there are economic problems in a company or plant the management points the finger at the workers as the problem.
It's time that we put a mirror in front of the top management when they point that finger at the people who are causing the failures of their companies. The good old USA does not have a breakdown of its work force but a breakdown in its managerial force. The Enron and World Com collapses should be a major RED Flag that we have a major management crisis. When Enron's President Kenny Lay is considered a top Business graduate from the University of Missouri's School of Business and his defense of his role in the Enron collapse is that "he did not know what was going on," then this country has a management psychosis of major proportions. Apparently Mr. Lay and his top management team looked at economic partnerships like Jessie James looked at bank robbery. When James was asked why rob banks and trains, he said, "That's where the money is." Mr. Lay why have phony partnerships? That's how we can fake revenues and push up the stock values. Then we can sell and drain the company and its workers dry. But Mr. Lay, where does that leave your workers and your stockholders? Mr. Lay, Mr. Lay, when I tried to ask him this exact question on the phone there was no answer. Poor Mr. Lay he was forced to sell almost all of his 12 homes to his family members so he will not have any assets that his workers or stockholders can get in court judgments.
Remember, Mr. Lay was the top business grad at the University of Missouri Business School. He says he did not know this crime was going on right under his nose in his management team. Mr. Lay or Enron donated an economics chair to the MU business school, and it has been difficult to get anyone to sit in it. At least Jessie James admitted he knew what his gang was doing when they robbed banks and trains. Mr. Lay says he had no idea that his gang was setting up partnerships to inflate revenues so as to stealing from the workers and stockholders. Who do you believe, Lay or James? If a kid robs the 7-11 and is identified, he goes to jail. Well, we all know who the top guys were at Enron and what they did. As of this writing none have gone to jail. (Dec. 2002) Is there a double standard to protect the management crooks in this "Good Old USA?"
A CEO is considered a sharp operator if he saves money and cuts the bottom line costs. So he takes his company over seas to cut labor costs. Now his former workers have to get lower paying jobs here in the "Good Old USA" and soon workers here cannot afford to buy his product made over seas and shipped back to the USA. Now his company goes "belly-up" because so many CEO's have done the same thing and now there are no workers who can afford to buy the products shipped to the USA. And of course the workers at his plants over seas are under paid and they can't buy his product. So, whom will he sell the products to? Chasing the ever increasing estimated quarterly profit report can finally put a company under and in some cases its management in jail. Many companies can do well at a set profit level, but the company cannot increase its profit by 20% each year. This is what drives CEO's to go down the Enron Road. The Coca Cola Corporation has announced it will no longer produce quarterly estimates of future earnings. There needs to be a lot more thought put into this economic model that runs on the track of ever increasing annual profits. This unrealistic earnings track will soon run head-on into the mountain of unrealistic returns.
Lets put a sign of the Kenny Lay Economic Chair at MU, "If you steal all your workers and stock holders money, then who will buy your product, if you really have one, and for Enron that question is still up in the air?" Then lets ask the wise professors to answer this question as well as the question: "If all corporations ship their work force over seas, then who will have the money to buy their products when they ship them back to the USA for sale? I have to ask the MU Business School Professors, if Kenny was one of your very best then who were your worst students. As far as I know no member of the Mafia Business group is a grad from MU. Please check to see what grade Kenny got in business ethics class.
Am I being too hard on those professor who work 9-months a year, and have grad students teach many if not most of their classes? Remember Kenny Lay was their wonder boy student. He was going to change the Economic World in the USA. He almost destroyed it; in fact he did destroy it for thousands of good families who saw their savings and retirement plans wiped out. But, not to worry Kenny and his family are doing very well with lots of property and funds. Since Kenny is now lawsuit-proof and Kenny's kids now have possession of his homes and property he has to hope they have better ethics than he had or Kenny might be out in the cold.

Counter Point from another MU graduate

I'm sure the School of Business and Public Administration doesn't have Corporate Skullduggery 301, Pass the Buck 311, and Excuses 321 in its schedule of classes. These are things you learn in the real business world not in the world of academics. (So did Kenny sleep through the ethics class?)
Upper management consists mostly of overpaid "bean counters", and "number crunches". The bottom line is the profit margin and its subsequent benefit for the investors. Lost in all this is the labor force, which ultimately makes it happen either positively or negatively.
There's another corporate giant that passed through the hallowed halls of MU. Sam Walton, who incidentally was a Hickman High School Kewpie too, just like Lay. Walton is responsible for evolving and changing retail concepts and methodology, and when he was alive, treated his employees with the respect they deserve.
There are many other distinguished graduates MU out in the real world now using principles they learned there, and picking up and applying new concepts from the non-academic world.
Written by two MU graduates, with impute from several others. What do you think? Send your comments to Judd@TroubleshooterJudd.com

Filed December 2002.