Land of the Giants
by
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The question has been asked countless ways and times before, "What is it with us humans that we never have enough?" We never seem to earn enough money or have all of the material things we need. Our house may not be grand enough, or our car not as fancy as we would like. We think that we are not as successful as we want or should be. We always believe that we should be accomplishing more, and we often focus on accumulation of wealth and power as the ultimate purpose and goal in life, measuring our self-worth largely in economic terms. The same can certainly be said for the business world, especially the business world of today. Business never seems to have enough. They view themselves as never big enough, nor influential enough, nor able to control and dominate their place in the world. Success in business has evolved over time into not just thinking in terms of profits, but thinking in terms of profit plus growth, power and position. Growth, at least as far back as the 1965-1970 "merger boom," has become the generally accepted vehicle for demonstrating success in business, and that momentum began to build way before the 1960’s. The point is certainly not that growth is bad, per se, but rather that some bothersome issues are associated with the manner in which business growth has occurred, and who became affected in this process. As many have observed over the past few years, including scholars, economists, writers and even business executives, growth has become the preferred and accepted methodology for achieving greater profitability as opposed to profitability through better business practices and management. Rather than growth being a reward for good management, growth, in and of itself, became the predominant goal no matter how achieved. A mind-set developed over time where trying to be better than your competition got slanted in the direction of trying to be bigger than your competition. The focus shifted away from concentrating on building better products and providing better services to concentrating on building bigger organizations. Even after some far-reaching and important laws were passed many years ago, business people continued to figure out that growth, power and concentration were easier roads to follow than more conventional avenues of trying to be better than your competition. Many poured all of their business energies into gaining control and market dominance, despite the passage of confining and restrictive laws and thousands of law suits which followed, all of which were designed to curb such greedy motivations. And in spite of these numerous and long struggles involving the court system and federal and state regulatory agencies, nothing seems to have changed all that much. This and succeeding chapters will pursue the progression of these matters.
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About the Book
This book, Land Of The Giants, comes at a time when we need to focus once more on huge and sprawling business concentrations, looking currently at this as we enter full speed ahead into the twenty-first century. The present revelations are alarming, with the number and names of giant players seeking mergers and industry consolidations, at the ultimate expense of American consumers, is somewhat staggering. Business behavior and ethics have not improved at all from years past. Predatory pricing arrangements, outright discrimination, secret merger fixes, product tying arrangements, and a host of other business ills and connivance’s are still around and going strong, while business law enforcement is overwhelmed to the point of losing sight of important goals and producing inconsistent and unfavorable results. This book on business giants includes a current and thoughtful analysis of present conditions, crossing nearly every industry, and including giants with such names as Microsoft, American Airlines, Office Depot, and a host of many more. The book also looks back in time to provide meaningful benchmarks for comparisons, focusing on such colossal business dynasties as the Rockefeller Oil Empire and the monopolistic meatpackers of bygone years. The question is addressed as to whether we as a nation have effectively moved forward in protecting the American consumer and smaller businesses from commercial abuses over the years, a sad legacy which unfortunately encompasses much of our nation’s business background. Finally, the largest giant of them all, all-pervasive government, is granted some brief but important recognition, including narratives on how deeply entrenched this institution has become. Some interesting statistics on the endless size of government are presented, plus a few horrifying tidbits concerning the proficiency of government at all levels, notably including our friendly IRS. Lastly, if not more importantly, this book is perceived as another "wake-up call" on behalf of American citizens in recognition that power and concentration in anything, be that business or government, constitutes a successful formula for eventual abuse, and the evidence is here. For business, power, and concentration constitute the aggrandizement of wealth in a select few, at the sizeable expense of the vast majority.
About the Author
Donald Meyette lived his childhood years in the steel-making town of Gary, Indiana, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Following a brief stint in the Army, and graduation from Indiana University, he entered the firm of Haskins & Sells as a certified public accountant (which firm is now known as Deloitte & Touche). After eight years, he moved over to a brand new, multi-national holding company by the name of Esmark, Inc., where he set up a world-wide internal audit function as its managing director. By 1980, he again had set sight on new challenges, having moved to Detroit and joining Fruehauf Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of semi-trailers, here again to set up and manage an internal audit function that would also span part of the globe. Finally, tiring of big corporate life, he moved to Orlando, Florida in the mid-1980’s, establishing his own holding company that acquired a number of small businesses. Years later, thinking towards retirement, he sold these businesses and relocated to San Diego, setting up a practice in accountancy and business consulting, but with the real mission to someday write. This book is a culmination of five years of both general research on business, and specific research on business events and relevant laws, coupled with a life-long business career that included extensive exposure to a great many businesses, some very large, and others very small.