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Thanks for that. Evil Corp narrative is strong on HN. Years working in corporate and I am yet to see people who are “serving shareholders” and “squeezing custo
by smugglerFlynn 5y ago
Thanks for that. Evil Corp narrative is strong on HN.
Years working in corporate and I am yet to see people who are “serving shareholders” and “squeezing customers”.
There are strategies that fail, and sometimes there are people who maximize personal gains at all cost. Exact same way as for any other kind of organization.
Big problem is scale. Cost of mistake and collateral damages for big org will always be higher and more impactful due to size. 0.1% of customers for Amazon is 300 people.
- andi999 5y agoIsn't it more like Amazon has 300 Million customers so 1% is 3 Million, and 0,1% IS 300000 people?
- smugglerFlynn 5y agoHehe, that’s what I meant, but my math failed me
- berkes 5y agoSqueezing Customers does not automatically follow from Serving Shareholders. A healthy coorporation has these aligned: serving customers well, treating workers well results in shareholder value.
- midasuni 5y agogetting rid of 1% of customers to save 10% of expenditure is generally a good move. You can have 99% of customers are happy even if 1% are quietly given food poisoning and die, which is why we have laws to protect that 1%.
- berkes 5y agoAs Tim Ferris shows brilliantly in his famous book (four hour workweek) "Firing customers" can be greatly benefitial to all. Or, to stay in your analogy: striving to make a food that is 100% safe for 100% of the people will result in bland, poor food. It's fine to use gluten in your bread, or peanuts in your sause, even if x% of potential customers will get sick and can die, if they eat it. Fire those customers. Be clear: this is not for you. It makes the other customers happier. And consequently your stakeholders happier.