[geeks] fwd: Kenneth H. Olsen, Digital Computing Pioneer, Entrepreneur and Gordon Board Member, Remembered

[Phil Stracchino]

On 02/10/11 17:28, Jonathan Patschke wrote:
> An IPO (along with all the nasty US legislation[0] that comes with it) is
> the beginning of the end for visionary companies, unless they have strong
> measures in their charter to prevent hostile takeover and to make short-
> term shareholder profitability take a back set to long-term viability.

> [Olsen] was pushed out by PC weenies who wanted to carve up the company to
> maximize their immediate returns on shares by selling off divisions.  Not
> unlike watching grandchildren fight over which developer gets to buy the
> family farm.

I once again state my belief that the Harvard Business School's theory
of bottom-line management and the mindset that it engendered on Wall
Street combine to create the greatest single calamity that has ever
befallen American business.  The industrial might of America is bleeding
out in the gutter, while the bankers and stockbrokers stand around it in
a circle fighting over the blood and selling each other futures
contracts on rendering down the body.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.