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And consider The Monster: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT+Key+Statistics http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT+Key+Statistics Just shy of half a trillion dol

And consider The Monster: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT+Key+Statistics http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT+Key+Statistics Just shy of half a trillion dollars in yearly revenue, which generated 15.4 billion in profit. That's $1.3B revenue per day, or $55M revenue per hour, $920K/minute. A million dollars of revenue, every minute. Compared to nominal GDP, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is larger than Taiwan, Austria and Thailand. Granted, that's revenue, which is 'easy' compared to profits! How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries?

mehrdada 12y ago
> How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries? Because they are not. Similarities start and end right there.
- Diederich 12y ago
  You are, of course, correct, I was obviously getting a bit carried away with hyperbole. My deeper point is one of size. At some point, these companies start doing country-like things, at country-like scales. In this particular example, I'm talking about activities that start to look like something you might called "Intelligence", and "counter-Intelligence", just as an example.
- chiph 12y ago
  The Walmart sporting goods department is probably better armed than some countries..
Jach 12y ago
> How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries? How about the reverse? Countries as companies? And why don't we look at how large, complex companies can do so much better financially than governments?
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  Companies can do so much better than governments because governments pay for all the things that companies use - like transport networks, education, healthcare, military cover, and so on. Taxes are so small, relatively, companies get these benefits as a free, or at least as a heavily subsidised, handout.
  - Jach 12y ago
    Governments get the same benefits that companies do from these things -- it's just that the government does the reinvesting in those cases while other companies might reinvest elsewhere (or in the not-to-distant past some of those very areas). It's the same principle behind companies backing open source. The companies themselves benefit from it, and so do others. And sometimes the initial contributions allow further contributions, like Walmart utilizing the transport networks to greatly improve the lives of the citizens and the tax base for the government. The governments needing to pay for those basic things (while having a captive income stream) can't be the sole reason governments do so terribly at their duties. How do you explain the F-35 from the basis that governments gotta build roads? Why not look at process and management and incentives, which go a long way towards explaining why different companies do better than others?

mehrdada 12y ago

> How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries? Because they are not. Similarities start and end right there.

Diederich 12y ago
You are, of course, correct, I was obviously getting a bit carried away with hyperbole. My deeper point is one of size. At some point, these companies start doing country-like things, at country-like scales. In this particular example, I'm talking about activities that start to look like something you might called "Intelligence", and "counter-Intelligence", just as an example.
chiph 12y ago
The Walmart sporting goods department is probably better armed than some countries..

Jach 12y ago

> How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries? How about the reverse? Countries as companies? And why don't we look at how large, complex companies can do so much better financially than governments?

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
Companies can do so much better than governments because governments pay for all the things that companies use - like transport networks, education, healthcare, military cover, and so on. Taxes are so small, relatively, companies get these benefits as a free, or at least as a heavily subsidised, handout.
- Jach 12y ago
  Governments get the same benefits that companies do from these things -- it's just that the government does the reinvesting in those cases while other companies might reinvest elsewhere (or in the not-to-distant past some of those very areas). It's the same principle behind companies backing open source. The companies themselves benefit from it, and so do others. And sometimes the initial contributions allow further contributions, like Walmart utilizing the transport networks to greatly improve the lives of the citizens and the tax base for the government. The governments needing to pay for those basic things (while having a captive income stream) can't be the sole reason governments do so terribly at their duties. How do you explain the F-35 from the basis that governments gotta build roads? Why not look at process and management and incentives, which go a long way towards explaining why different companies do better than others?