5 ms·

Bosch is a privately owned company, which means they can act independently of the stock market. This always helps with making long term decisions.

by jansan 5y ago

namdnay 5y ago
Amazon has taken pretty long term decisions, despite being public I think it’s just a question of leadership
- lb1lf 5y ago
  -But management takes their cues from stockholders, and it would be a very hard sell indeed to convince stockholders that a decision resulting in lower profit in the short term but improve it long term should be made. Hence companies which are either not publicly traded (like Bosch) or is majority owned by someone or other (like Amazon) is much more likely to be able to make long term decisions - as they are not always geared towards getting the most impressive earnings during the current quarter to satisfy stockholders.
- _ph_ 5y ago
  While Amazon is technically a public company, more than 50 % of shares are owned by the founder and consequently the control isn't split across a larger group of people.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - eru 5y ago
    Where do you got your 'more than 50%' from? The Internet says Jeff Bezos has a bit more than 10%.
    - _ph_ 5y ago
      That is a good question. If I think about it, I have no idea :). Somehow I got the impression that Bezos as the founder still holds a controlling amount of shares, but if he owned 50% of all Amazon shares, he would be the richest person by a large margin. Anyway, it seems that Bezos basically did not have anyone to answer to while leading Amazon - amazon reportet losses for many years for the sake of growth. That means he had a free hand to implement strategies, which are long term profitable. And I attribute the success of Amazon to no small amount to this.
      - eru 5y ago
        Well, despite reporting losses, the stock kept climbing up. So the other shareholders were apparently happy.
- jansan 5y ago
  20 years is not very long term. Kepp in mind that Bosch was founded in 1886. If Amazon keeps up like this for the next one hundred years, I will fully agree with you.
Loic 5y ago
Better than privately owned, they are owned by a foundation and are known to not only think long term, but also short term for their workers. In France, some years ago, they closed a plant producing automotive parts, but they kept all the employees, retrained them and started producing solar panel components. It was pretty incredible as at the same time, French companies were just laying off brutally.
- Glawen 5y ago
  And they were laid off because Bosch closed their solar panel business a few years later
  - hef19898 5y ago
    Doesn't change the fact they tried. More then most other companies usually do.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  It's emphasizing that employees are their primary resource, and retaining that resource is more important than anything. Contrast this with the US' approach to employees that sees them as expendable and replaceable - showing now in the crisis / memes that restaurants can't get enough staff because they don't pay enough / people aren't desperate enough.
  - lb1lf 5y ago
    -In all fairness, though, the latter approach isn't unique to the US; Norwegian papers have run a lot of stories lately about business X or Y being up in arms about the labour shortage, amplified by COVID because of travel restrictions limiting access to cheap labour from abroad. However the issue isn't really that they cannot find labour - it is that they cannot find labour at a cost which makes their current business model sustainable. (Mostly an issue in labour intensive, seasonal sectors relying on unskilled labour - agriculture, aquaculture, restaurants...) Essentially, the gripe is 'If we paid our employees a decent wage, we'd be out of business.' Sigh.
mojuba 5y ago
Bosch is NOT strictly a privately owned company. It's a so called steward company majority owned by a non-profit trust so you could say they are nobody's. Profits never leave the company and that's why they can plan long-term and are generally pretty stable and resilient.

Bosch is a privately owned company, which means they can act independently of the stock market. This always helps with making long term decisions.

by jansan 5y ago

Bosch is a privately owned company, which means they can act independently of the stock market. This always helps with making long term decisions.

namdnay 5y ago

Amazon has taken pretty long term decisions, despite being public I think it’s just a question of leadership

lb1lf 5y ago
-But management takes their cues from stockholders, and it would be a very hard sell indeed to convince stockholders that a decision resulting in lower profit in the short term but improve it long term should be made. Hence companies which are either not publicly traded (like Bosch) or is majority owned by someone or other (like Amazon) is much more likely to be able to make long term decisions - as they are not always geared towards getting the most impressive earnings during the current quarter to satisfy stockholders.
_ph_ 5y ago
While Amazon is technically a public company, more than 50 % of shares are owned by the founder and consequently the control isn't split across a larger group of people.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- eru 5y ago
  Where do you got your 'more than 50%' from? The Internet says Jeff Bezos has a bit more than 10%.
  - _ph_ 5y ago
    That is a good question. If I think about it, I have no idea :). Somehow I got the impression that Bezos as the founder still holds a controlling amount of shares, but if he owned 50% of all Amazon shares, he would be the richest person by a large margin. Anyway, it seems that Bezos basically did not have anyone to answer to while leading Amazon - amazon reportet losses for many years for the sake of growth. That means he had a free hand to implement strategies, which are long term profitable. And I attribute the success of Amazon to no small amount to this.
    - eru 5y ago
      Well, despite reporting losses, the stock kept climbing up. So the other shareholders were apparently happy.
jansan 5y ago
20 years is not very long term. Kepp in mind that Bosch was founded in 1886. If Amazon keeps up like this for the next one hundred years, I will fully agree with you.

Loic 5y ago

Better than privately owned, they are owned by a foundation and are known to not only think long term, but also short term for their workers. In France, some years ago, they closed a plant producing automotive parts, but they kept all the employees, retrained them and started producing solar panel components. It was pretty incredible as at the same time, French companies were just laying off brutally.

Glawen 5y ago
And they were laid off because Bosch closed their solar panel business a few years later
- hef19898 5y ago
  Doesn't change the fact they tried. More then most other companies usually do.
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
It's emphasizing that employees are their primary resource, and retaining that resource is more important than anything. Contrast this with the US' approach to employees that sees them as expendable and replaceable - showing now in the crisis / memes that restaurants can't get enough staff because they don't pay enough / people aren't desperate enough.
- lb1lf 5y ago
  -In all fairness, though, the latter approach isn't unique to the US; Norwegian papers have run a lot of stories lately about business X or Y being up in arms about the labour shortage, amplified by COVID because of travel restrictions limiting access to cheap labour from abroad. However the issue isn't really that they cannot find labour - it is that they cannot find labour at a cost which makes their current business model sustainable. (Mostly an issue in labour intensive, seasonal sectors relying on unskilled labour - agriculture, aquaculture, restaurants...) Essentially, the gripe is 'If we paid our employees a decent wage, we'd be out of business.' Sigh.

mojuba 5y ago

Bosch is NOT strictly a privately owned company. It's a so called steward company majority owned by a non-profit trust so you could say they are nobody's. Profits never leave the company and that's why they can plan long-term and are generally pretty stable and resilient.