use Perl

• The worst thing in this (Score:1)

  by zby (4817)

  is that they don't actually fail doing that. At least if by 'fail' you mean go out of business.
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709)

    Yeah, this is curiously related to a discussion I had with a boss back in the US. He was a die-hard Republican (and a really nice guy -- I'm not slagging him off) and argued that the vacation time offered in Europe isn't competitive in the long run. However, this good idea succeeds, like the idiocies in my post, because since so many companies do it, it levels the playing field.

    Note that vacation time over here is typically a minimum of 20 days, but I'm getting 30 this year. I've no idea why people in th
    • Re: (Score:1)

      by zby (4817)

      I certainely cannot do that with any authority - but personally I would point my finger at 'managerialism' as a consequence of 'absent owner capitalism'. The disturbing thing about all of that is how similar it is to the ills of communism as it was practised here.
    • Re: (Score:1)

      by zby (4817)

      And by the way: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/03/crisis.html [harvardbusiness.org]
• The little Stalins (Score:1)

  by brentdax (2147)

  It's always struck me as odd how a large company is like a small command economy inside the overall market system; that seems like a very inefficient way to run things. The only reason I can come up with for their success is the cost of regulatory compliance--the couple million dollars Sarbanes-Oxley costs is chump change to large companies but insurmountable to small ones.
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709)

    Sarbanes-Oxley is hurting us on this side of the pond, too. British companies are really annoyed that they have to alter their local accounting practices to ensure they comply with US laws. It's quite a ripple effect.

    And I doubt seriously that the cost of regulatory compliance has anything to do with ego-driven management. Consider that the RFP process is often driven by private investors demanding that the company be more accountable. Sometimes there's just too much information to sift through to find
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by autarch (914)

      OVERLOORDS? They do spell funny over there.
      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ovid (2709)

        A loord [reference.com] is an obsolete term for a dull, stupid fellow. I meant that. Really.

        STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! I LIED, OK?!
• on people (Score:1)

  by dagolden (6584)

  (to add to your list)

  People (including management) who don't have anything productive to do, or can't figure out what would be productive to do, will get busy doing something unproductive or counter-productive in order to justify their existence. I'm convinced that a lot of "productivity-enhancing" projects are really these kinds of things in disguise.

  -- dagolden
• According to economic theory (Score:1)

  by btilly (5037)

  The size of companies is set by the tradeoff between the cost of constantly negotiating contracts, versus the cost of internal bureaucratic stupidity.
• What businesses do while they make money... (Score:1)

  by mw487 (439)

  Thanks for the best post this week. No, this quarter!
• Why businesses fail (Score:1)

  by scot (6695)

  It may take a while but they do go out of business eventually. It takes a long time to run a business of any size into the ground. My takeaway is, err on the high side for bidding on contract work.