Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
No, it has not "always been this". Nothing could be further from the truth. Not at Boeing, not at a litany of other manufacturers. "This" has largely been the inevitable result of these sorts of companies pushing "shareholder value" beginning in the late 20th century, picking up momentum in the 21st century. Shareholders owning stock in publicly traded companies now expect to make their money through increasing stock prices rather than dividends. It never used to be that way. The artificially escalating "values" of tech stocks during the big tech boom, which engendered the rise of the "day trader", is where this all began. Everyone else had to compete for that interest and, to do so, had to find ways to dramatically raise their stock prices every quarter.
Prior to that, "blue chip" companies, like Boeing, played the long game, providing solid returns via dividends, not stock prices. It was an entirely different game in those days. I had the great good fortune of spending the first 20 years of my career in such a company, one that valued its reputation amongst its customers, and absolutely did not scrimp on quality in anything. I saw it. I lived it. It was far, far different than it is today. So, no, it most vehemently has not "always been this".
|
Did it used to be like that because of values inherent to leadership and a focus on long-term growth or was it that competition was different? I often wonder. We often look back on the post-war period as a time of businesses that cared about quality and employees, but is that because leadership was different or because they didn't face the same constraints from global competition?
That's what I meant by "it's always been like this", that businesses have always pursued lowest costs. They've always chased the cheapest supplier but what that means is different when you're looking at a national vs. international environment where business laws and regulations are different.
Edit: To add to that they need to be servants to their customers, which just want to move as many people through the sky as cheaply as possible. The only quality they care about is where it doesn't cost them money because passengers don't care what brand of plane their butt will sit in.