LO & Big layoffs LO5670

Jan Lelie (100730.1213@compuserve.com)
16 Feb 96 04:14:46 EST

Replying to LO5503 --

Answering to LO & Big layoffs LO5503

>Wolfgang Schmid wonders if Goldratt's hypothesis -- that business needs to
>focus on growing sales, not limiting costs -- holds for mature businesses.
>He refers to other literature that uses examples from industries
>experiencing rapid growth or rapid change. I have the same questions.

And Rol continues with detailed stories about the retail business.

As i understood Mr. Goldratt, he meant that growing sales makes more sense
than reducing "costs" (i prefer his notion of "operational expenses", real
money. Costs is a matter of opinion), mainly because there is an end to
reducing things nad becauses in his theory The Goal of any business is to
make money.

I've had two problems with that:

- to make money means mistaking the result for the goal. With a shared
vision, team learning and all that the end result should be a better or
more consistent ROI. Many people tend to believe that, as this is highly
visible, that must have been the goal.

- the problem of the dune rabbits (a.k.a.: the tragedy of the commons). As
you might have observed: there are no fat dune rabbits, or only for a
short, transitionary period. The idea being that, once a dune rabbit
(preferably two) has discovered a niche, a new dune valley with no rabbits
and plenty of food, she will grow fat, raise a family, who will also grow
fat, until... the food supply dwindles. Or the foxes get them. What i see
as growth, is always in new dune valleys. You go west, young man, or you
find youself a nice niche. But a niche will become crowed, that is
exactely the idea behind liberal capitalism. And the west, a very big
niche indeed, hasn't been what it used to be. As long as you can keeping
moving on: into trains, into chemicals, into cities, into automobiles,
into electronics, growth seems to be possible. So we seem to have learned
that success means growth, and as this finite planet finally gets filled
up, that is what we see. Now, one way of looking at learning, or
'developing' is seeing a niche for unlimited growth: the emptiness of our
head.

Now swallow that,

(c) (1996) LOGISENS :-) Jan Lelie
100730.1213@compuserve.com

--
Jan Lelie <100730.1213@compuserve.com>
 

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>