Collins (2001) assesses that the “vast majority of companies never become great because the vast majority become quite good, and that is their main problem” (p. 3). The goal of the research team is to figure out why some companies proceed to achieve greatness and others just remain good. This undertaking meant taking 1,435 Fortune 500 companies where only those that incur a transition from good companies to great companies. From this pool of companies only 11 companies met the strict criterion that entails a company of experiencing greatness. Philosophical Assumptions The book evaluates several philosophical assumptions of what it takes to transform a company from good to great.
Bank Of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch Along with the fire sale of Bear Stearns and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the rescue of Merrill lynch confirmed the worst fears about the financial crisis. After a weekend of whirlwind deal-making, Merrill Lynch had sold their troubled brokerage firm to the Bank of America Corporation, dodging the financial sinkhole that was swallowing Lehman Brothers. As per some current and former Bofa executives and employees, the merger was really messy. On Saturday, September 13, Ken Lewis (Bofa CEO) and John Thain(Merrill CEO) met to discuss a strategic relationship. Thain proposed a 10% percent minority investment in Merrill, but Lewis wanted complete acquisition.
How can governments and banks cease to foreclose our homes when they’ve never helped us earn any of our income? Despite that paying federal taxes and interest rates weren’t enough. For those who cease to revoke our assets, are they considering it to be humane? These are only small examples relating the modern world and the essays of Ortega Y Gasset’s “The Greatest Danger, the State” and Erich Fromm’s “The Individual in the Chains of Illusions”. Gasset’s concept of the State manipulating the ‘mass’ referred to as the collective people (the people of society), can turn society to live for the “governmental machine”.
Company Demise In September 2008, customers started withdrawing deposits from the bank. These actions took place after Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy protection. The banking system in the country was in a state of flux causing many Americans to get leery of the system. In a matter of 10 days, customers had withdrawn a total of $16.7 billion in deposits according to the Office of Thrift Supervision (Sidel, Enrich, & Fitzpatrick, 2008). The Office of Thrift Supervision and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized the operations of the bank and sold it to its only bidder, J. P. Morgan.
It’s scary that although Northrop Grumman has been implicated in numerous scandals continues to have a military contract. It seems as if Northrop Grumman’s subsidiaries followed suit after its parent company. For example, Ingalls Shipbuilding , a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, had to pay $2.25 million dollars in a settlement with the Navy in a False Claims Act suit. Ingalls reportedly fraudulently exploited an accounting practice in order to shift certain costs to Navy contracts, instead of the Israeli contracts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman#Controversies http://contractormisconduct.org/index.cfm/1,73,221,html?ContractorID=42&ranking=4 http://contractormisconduct.org/ass/contractors/42/cases/196/460/harkindefazio.pdf
Although one can’t be taught to be a leader in educational courses, leadership qualities can be learned. Bennis mentions the lack of true leaders in America these days. Corporate executives are much more concerned with short-term results rather than long term gains. He uses two examples to demonstrate his point. First he gives the story of Ed, who despite him being smart, ambitious, determined to succeed and had the technical competence, still lacked people skills, conceptual skills, judgment, taste and character.
On top of this, vertical integration put all the money and power into the hands of a few people that controlled whole industries and there was no attempt to regulate or try to monitor the system (Vries, 03 25 2003). The government needed to regulate businesses. and TR tried to fix it but was demonized and called “un-American”. He didn't want to restore competition at a lower level but wanted to show JP Morgan and Carnegie that they also had to feel democracy and follow the rules, no matter how wealthy they were they weren't an exception to equality (Vries, 03 25 2003). Roosevelt believed that the government had the right and the responsibility to regulate big business so that its actions did not
“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” is a 2005 documentary which examines the 2001 collapse of the Enron Corporation is the result in criminal trials for several of the company's top executives; it also shows the involvement of the Enron traders in the Texas electricity crisis . This film shows how the 7th largest company in Texas (net worth $70 billion) became bankrupt. Enron showed us how big money comes from good business and how well you know the people who have higher powers. Ken Lay ( the CEO of Enron) showed futuristic and more improved ways to do business. Enron had many legitimate sources of income like natural gas, etc.
Final Paper Candice Blair University of Maryland University College PRPA 601 Turnitin score: There are few betrayals worse than mishandling money that someone has entrusted to you. Imagine the damage control needed when institutions whose purpose is to manage others’ money, mishandles the finances of millions of people. In 2012, the financial world was shattered with the implosion of one of the world’s banking giants, JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM). Due to a complex trading portfolio that was dubbed the “London whale”, which amounted to over $6 billion in losses, JPM was accused of misleading its investors in order to boost profits, but asserted that they (JPM) were acting on the best information that they had at the time. A lengthy investigation and several hearings pressed JPM leaders on their trading practices.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Overview: The company was involved in an accounting scandal in 2002 that resulted in a significant restatement of revenues from 1999 to 2001. The restatement was the result of an improper booking of sales related to "channel stuffing", or the practice of offering excess inventory to customers to create higher sales numbers. The company has since settled with the United States Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay $150 million while neither admitting nor denying guilt. According to an FTC consent order filed in 2003,[10] the company engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts over the past decade to obstruct the entry of low-price generic competition for three of Bristol's widely used pharmaceutical products: two anti-cancer drugs, Taxol and Platinol, and the anti-anxiety agent BuSpar. Bristol avoided competition by abusing federal regulations to block generic entry; deceived the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to obtain unwarranted patent protection; paid a would-be generic rival over $70 million not to bring any competing products to market; and filed baseless patent infringement lawsuits to deter entry by generics.