Dumpster Computer

[MrRiplEy[H]]

And that's why I was in the executive ranks of hundreds of million to multi-billion dollar businesses for over 20 years and now work with a fortune 200 company?  OK.

Yep, being a worker in a company does not require business intelligence. Take a good look at Apple and its success. It's a giant ripoff and they're the most profitable tech company around.

[BaldEagl]

Yep, being a worker in a company does not require business intelligence. Take a good look at Apple and its success. It's a giant ripoff and they're the most profitable tech company around.

I think you missed the part about "executive" (reporting to the chairman and/or CEO).  And BTW I was a recipient of one of those "golden handshakes" at one point.  I still didn't have to rip people off.

[BaldEagl]

Look at Apple. They're ripping their customers off like no tomorrow. But their product design together with marketing has made the products so desireable that the company sells little but gets record profit year after year. The customers are left wanting more even though they know that 400 dollars of their 600 dollar iPad is pure profit.

These comments are laughable and show how little you understand about business.  Are you actually trying to say Apple shows 67% EBITDA.  Ridiculous.

[ink]

The problem with our society AND our economy is that people now believe that they should make the absolute maximum profit that they can get. This principle is what has devastated the housing market, the stock market(multiple times) and worst of all the health care system. People now expect that a house that they buy should double or more in value much more quickly than ever before. What ever happened to selling more of something at a reasonable price? Whatever happened to ethics? Greed is listed as one of the 7 Deadly Sins for a reason.....

 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

These comments are laughable and show how little you understand about business.  Are you actually trying to say Apple shows 67% EBITDA.  Ridiculous.

Talk is cheap. Apple runs the leaderboard and it's based on pure ripoff. Believe it or not.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I think you missed the part about "executive" (reporting to the chairman and/or CEO).  And BTW I was a recipient of one of those "golden handshakes" at one point.  I still didn't have to rip people off.

A golden handshake is a major ripoff. If you think otherwise you're fooling yourself. The only difference is you're ripping off your own company staff instead of the customers. The worst kind possible.

[BaldEagl]

A golden handshake is a major ripoff. If you think otherwise you're fooling yourself. The only difference is you're ripping off your own company staff instead of the customers. The worst kind possible.

If the buyout and replacement of an executive raises the stock price of the company then it's a bargain for the shareholders which generally benefits the company workers.  Again you know nothing of which you speak.

EDIT:  I can't believe you're so voraciously defending the deplorable act of ripping people off.  It seems some lessons in both business and ethics might do you some good.

[bmwgs]

No offense but 'I used to own a business' and 'did not rip anyone off' fulfill eachothers pretty well. Well, unless you sold your business for a rip-off price afterwards that is!  

Your words; "The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money."

Actually didn't sell my business, I had to decide to go one direction or another, and I chose the other.  So the answer still stands, I didn't rip anyone off!  I kinda feel you can't say the same.   

Fred

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Your words; "The definition of doing business is ripping off the customer. You're not going to make a buck by being fair and doing favors. The art of doing business is knowing how much you can rip the customer off and still leave him satisfied for the money."

Actually didn't sell my business, I had to decide to go one direction or another, and I chose the other.  So the answer still stands, I didn't rip anyone off!  I kinda feel you can't say the same.   

Fred

I gather that your business wasn't very successful given that you decided to quit it. This was my point.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If the buyout and replacement of an executive raises the stock price of the company then it's a bargain for the shareholders which generally benefits the company workers.  Again you know nothing of which you speak.

Hahaha you must be joking? So you're defending the practice of rewarding leaders who have sunken the company to the bottom? 

EDIT:  I can't believe you're so voraciously defending the deplorable act of ripping people off.  It seems some lessons in both business and ethics might do you some good.

Again: The whole concept of business is of ripping people off. Profit margins do not come from thin air. If your company would price everything on 'fairness' base you'd never be able to gain big profits. Competition is the only thing that limits the level of ripoff basically. Your competitors will force you to drop margins if they have a competing product or service to offer. If a company has something unique to offer the margins of that can be almost freely raised.

Just look at Apple and Nvidia - both companies have unique products (or at least had) and they're priced through the roof. Not because they're more expensive to manufacture - because they CAN.

[bmwgs]

I gather that your business wasn't very successful given that you decided to quit it. This was my point.

See, that is where you have guessed wrong.  It was actually very successful, thus why I had to make a decision.  The only point that I have seen you make is how unethical you are in doing business.

Fred

[MrRiplEy[H]]

See, that is where you have guessed wrong.  It was actually very successful, thus why I had to make a decision.  The only point that I have seen you make is how unethical you are in doing business.

Fred

Sorry but I laugh at anyone who mentions 'ethical' and business in the same sentence with a straight face

The raw reality is that if you try to do business 'ethically' you're going to suffer and get exploited. My company, for example, had a bad period of 'fair' approach to customer service for some years. We did favors to customers and didn't charge of every fart our people did mostly of fear of losing customers as we were a small startup company competing with 100-1000 times bigger competitors. This lead to small margins and the customers learned that they can start to demand anything for free. In the end we had customers demanding us - do this and we won't pay because you didn't charge us last time either. This is pure insanity business wise.

So we changed the whole approach and decided we do not need customers who are not prepared to compensate us well for our services. The only reason why we could do that was because we were already established in the industry and the clientel knew we had something to offer that they can't get from our competition. There was some customer dissatisfaction at first but then they either quit doing business with us (actually I think none did in the end) or accept the new way of doing things. This change in attitude more than doubled our profit margin in the first year together with an increased turnover and continues growing every year. We could hire more people and invest more in development after that. If we continued to be 'fair' we'd be bankrupt now for sure.

[Copprhed]

Hahaha you must be joking? So you're defending the practice of rewarding leaders who have sunken the company to the bottom? 

Again: The whole concept of business is of ripping people off. Profit margins do not come from thin air. If your company would price everything on 'fairness' base you'd never be able to gain big profits. Competition is the only thing that limits the level of ripoff basically. Your competitors will force you to drop margins if they have a competing product or service to offer. If a company has something unique to offer the margins of that can be almost freely raised.

Just look at Apple and Nvidia - both companies have unique products (or at least had) and they're priced through the roof. Not because they're more expensive to manufacture - because they CAN.

Not every business that sells is "at the bottom". Many are at the top, or getting there. You have absolutely NO justification for your business standards, they are the root cause of the majority of our nation's economic ills, and proof that our country is no longer the moral leader in the world. This is so similar to the ideas that preceded the Great Depression, and has and is causing the ongoing Great Recession.
And by the way, just because someone can do something doesn't make it right OR ethical. Sooner or later, those business models fail, because they inevitably price their product out of their costumers' range. AMD came along to compete with Intel and for many years was the better product at a substantially lower price.

[Copprhed]

MrRipley...your ideas will be the death of our economy, it's unsustainable, and you will see that eventually...businesses that practice fairly always succeed over those who charge all they can get away with...you may be doing well right now, but someone will come along with fair practices, and your customer base will desert you.

[bmwgs]

Sorry but I laugh at anyone who mentions 'ethical' and business in the same sentence with a straight face

The raw reality is that if you try to do business 'ethically' you're going to suffer and get exploited. My company, for example, had a bad period of 'fair' approach to customer service for some years. We did favors to customers and didn't charge of every fart our people did mostly of fear of losing customers as we were a small startup company competing with 100-1000 times bigger competitors. This lead to small margins and the customers learned that they can start to demand anything for free. In the end we had customers demanding us - do this and we won't pay because you didn't charge us last time either. This is pure insanity business wise.

So we changed the whole approach and decided we do not need customers who are not prepared to compensate us well for our services. The only reason why we could do that was because we were already established in the industry and the clientel knew we had something to offer that they can't get from our competition. There was some customer dissatisfaction at first but then they either quit doing business with us (actually I think none did in the end) or accept the new way of doing things. This change in attitude more than doubled our profit margin in the first year together with an increased turnover and continues growing every year. We could hire more people and invest more in development after that. If we continued to be 'fair' we'd be bankrupt now for sure.

Compensation for services and/or products is expected.  I or anyone else should not expect a business to provide a service and/or product for free.  I also believe a business should never offer to provide a service and/or product for free.  This is a bad business practice, and you clearly saw how it can turn out.  

This has nothing to do with ripping someone off.  There are thousands and thousands of business that provide a service and/or product for fair compensation without ripping off their customers, or having to resort to do something for free.  By your words, it appears you want to get as much out of your customers as you can based on their ignorants.  My perception of your business style is similar to, I take my poorly running car in to an automotive repair business, where in reality it had a bad plug wire, but you try to sell me an engine. You can call it what you want, but that is purely unethical.

Fred