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Have you or any of your friends ever worked in a non-tech, non-finance business? Many of them are incredibly poorly run. Bad hiring practices, little/no invest
by eldavido 7y ago
Have you or any of your friends ever worked in a non-tech, non-finance business?
Many of them are incredibly poorly run. Bad hiring practices, little/no investment in operations or process, etc.
All I'm saying is, you have to look case by case at what's going on. Sometimes the PE firm does basically loot the business. In others, entrenched management has been there decades with little board or investor oversight, is performing way below the rest of the industry, and really does need a swift kick in the ass.
Don't rush to blame the PE guys here anyway. Everyone knows Americans are drinking much less milk, they probably bought it at a deep discount knowing they might not be able to turn it into a successful business, and that bet failed.
- L_Rahman 7y agoTech and finance businesses are also horribly run. There's no evidence suggesting managerial or process excellence in technology companies. The reason finance and technology companies are profitable has everything to do with the nature of the product they create and the leverage it has in our society today. Finance is famous for making people sitting at their desks all day waiting to get a deck at 11AM to put in logos with the correct resolution.
- eldavido 7y agoNo. They're better run because they're more competitive and only the best-run firms survive. There is more pressure toward excellence, and pay reflects this. Can you name me the 10th-best PC operating system maker? No, you can't, because there isn't one. Whereas I'm sure the management practices of a typical small-town pizza shop aren't great. I'll grant that perhaps companies get lazy if they're monopolies but that doesn't last forever. I just think it's silly to suggest that companies in cutthroat, competitive industries are less high-performance than average, smaller firms.