Greed Is Good??

To read more articles and other works by author Ken Kreps, visit http://www.kenkreps.com.
To send an e-mail to the author, click here.

When I first read of the Enron and World-com scandals, I wasn’t surprised in the least as I simply considered it to be an extension of what I had observed in the business world for many years.

After some years as a professional musician, I leveraged my college degree to embark on a succession of successful business positions. In succession, over the next few decades, I was a hospital department head, a programmer, a data processing manager, a systems analyst and finally a technical salesman for several companies in the growing field of healthcare computer systems. I stayed in technical sales for over twenty years.

I’m sure there have been dubious characters operating in the business world since one stone-age fellow sold another one a rock. However, in the last 25 years, the whole tone of business has changed to a “screw the clients, screw the employees, and I’ll get mine” mentality. I have seen this demonstrated over and over again.

Case in point: I worked as a salesperson for a privately owned company (company A) headquartered in a beautiful town in the Midwest. The company had a good product, a talented staff and treated its employees well. It was one of the last of the family type companies. The owner/president was a likable sort who loved a good challenge (and a good argument), was opinionated, but fair and open with his employees. I had some good sales years with that company and in fact was sales person of the year, one year in the mid nineties. I enjoyed the ownership, the management, my fellow employees and the opportunity to fairly make an excellent living selling a proven product.

Needing venture capital for R&D, the company owner made the tragic mistake of letting his company be taken over by a larger unscrupulous company (company B). This company was a poster child for all that is wrong in big business. First, it promised the office (former headquarters) of company A would always be kept open. Two years later those offices were closed and all employees were fired except a handful that agreed to relocate to the headquarters of Company B in another state and a much less desirable city. Next, a new CEO was brought in for company B, and it was obvious from the beginning that he was there for one purpose and one purpose only. That was to drive up the stock price of company B and sell it, thereby making himself, as well as the other major stockholders, a bundle. Once, during a national sales meeting, he showed his true colors by standing in the back of the room, ignoring all business issues which were taking place and practicing his golf swing. He had no interest whatsoever in what was going on and he lacked even the interest to pretend he did.

He was successful in selling the company and he and others did make their bundle. Again more firings took place as the new company (company C) decided it no longer needed most of the employees of company B. Then, company C accused company B of cooking the books to make company B look more attractive to a would-be buyer than it actually was. Later, Company C was found to have had some skullduggery in its own accounting practices and, when this news came to light, it’s stock plunged in value by two thirds.

Company A (a decent small company) was swallowed and cannibalized by company B which cooked its books and was sold to company C which itself later finagled it’s own accounting records and was caught doing so.

An isolated case, you might ask? No, not at all as this scenario has been played out time and time again, across this country, over the past years. The result? Millions of qualified people are out of work and the interests of big business are running rampant (with the help of the current Washington administration) over the needs of workers and families in our nation.

Make no mistake. Our country was built on business and needs sound businesses to prosper in order for the economy to remain strong. What we do not need is the business climate which is currently running uncontrolled in our nation, today. In the movie, “Wall Street” the no-morals financier, Gordon Gecko, (played so wonderfully by Michael Douglas) used the phrase, “Greed, is good.” In the end, Gordon Gecko, was caught in a sting and got his just deserts. Unfortunately, this is not often true in the real world. Business today, is populated with thousands of Gordon Geckos (or aspiring Gordon Geckos), each amassing their fortunes at the expense of others. Employees? To hell with them! Customers? To hell with them, too! Quality service? To hell with that! It’s way too expensive. Ethics? Who needs them!

Greed and deceit are not the only enemies of the workingman or woman. In Dallas, I was the sales manager for a company owned by an individual who had been wealthy from birth. He had known nothing else. The company was well staffed with quality people and sales were booming. Nevertheless, on a whim, after a skiing trip the owner decided to suddenly (within days) sell the company to a tight fisted competitor: putting all but a few employees on the street, picking themselves up, and wondering what had happened. The new owner was, in a word, an incompetent bumbler (OK, two words!). Knowing who he was, I had no intention of going to work for him but, out of curiosity, went through the interview process anyway. It was quickly obvious that he, and his sales manager, lacked any interview skills, whatsoever. They hadn't a clue as to what to look for in an employee other than how cheaply they could get them to work for their company. After leaving their office, I began to realize just how humorous and amateurish their interview techniques had been, and had to sit in my car and laugh about the whole incident before driving from the parking lot. Humor is where you find it, I suppose. The old owner gave no thought as to the lack of qualifications of the new owner or what his action in breaking up a successful company meant to his employees (many of them long time employees) or to their families. He thought only of himself and went off to enjoy his wealth. In this case it wasn’t greed, but apathy and total non-caring, which led to the employees taking it on the chin once again. There seems to be an abundance of that going around these days, also.

For whatever reason, business in our country is in a sorry state where the owners and major stock holders often make fortunes and the employees are the victims of lay-offs, company closures, jobs being shipped overseas to vastly lower paid workers, and out and out deception and greed.

One aspect of this has caused a ripple effect for us all, even those who are employed. What kind of service did you get the last time you called a company with a problem? And how long did you have to wait in order for a live person to come on the line? And once they were there, what expertise were they able to being to bear on your problem? Service in this country has gone to hell in a hand basket as companies ship their support functions out of the country, using much lower paid workers who lack proper training. In a mad frenzy to boost their bottom line, companies have drastically curtailed their support functions (and the money spent on them) and for that, we all suffer at one time or another. The formula is not difficult to understand. Less U.S. jobs + cost cutting = poor service.

As a fed-up citizen and a Democrat I sincerely hope we throw George W. Bush out on his can, come election-day as he has (among his other many failures) protected and coddled the interests of big business like no President before. Still, we can’t blame George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or even the Senior George Bush for creating this business atmosphere of greed and deceit, as it began before any of them became President. Even with a Democrat at the helm of our nation, I’m not naïve enough to think this trend in corporate greed will be turned around significantly. To be sure, removing the policies of George W. Bush from the mix will help, but greed in many businesses has become a way of life and companies are no longer concerned about the ethics of what they are doing, but are only concerned with getting caught.

Perhaps we should change that original noble slogan of our country. “The land of the free, the home of the brave.” Now it might be more realistic to say, “The land of the free, the home of the unemployed.” The American dream still exists for some, but for others it has truly become an every day nightmare.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken Kreps lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife. He has written a number of published articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous consumer and business pieces. Ken has also written scripts for Imagination Theater, an award winning audio drama series heard on over 150 commercial radio stations across the nation.

Press the Back button to return to the menu for this category. Click here to return to the main page.