Global Money

A lot of talk is 'out there' at the moment about the current economic situation. Several countries have declared a recession, pundits are crying doom, gloom etc...

There has been some discussion about Greed Sickness amongst the stock market types and even amongst the Dumb Poor who get convinced they need larger tv's, better back yards and more DVD's (as opposed to books).

My corporate experience was early this year, my boss at the time (someone who just did not 'get' the market he was working with). We had a contract in place with our major customer that had a clause permitting a price increase in line with the Bureau of Statistics indicies. The issue was we had a monopoly market, the customer resented buying the product from us and wanted a whole raft of improvements. My boss's plan, push through the price increase - because we can, its in the contract.

Whenever I get information relating to the current woes and dramas I'm reminded of the conversations I had explaining why that was not a good idea. Problem is the customer couldn't go anywhere else, we had a monopoly. So in that sense there was no way the company could lose (in terms of units sold).
But there was a cost, in the terms of the big picture, a larger deal we had been chasing started to show signs of failing. Key stakeholders heard about what the company had done and began foiling the deal.

I left soon afterward for a whole raft of reasons. But I've kept this experience in mind. There was no need or value in pursuing the short term gains versus the long term effects on the relationship with the customer. It was an exercise in corporate greed.