Sciencemadness Discussion Board

salesmen not scientists running big technology?

xxxxx - 12-3-2016 at 06:17

It seems that big technology corporations are losing or have lost their drive to innovate and instead would rather concentrate on marketing their existing products to consumers,
Comment?

blogfast25 - 12-3-2016 at 06:40

Quote: Originally posted by xxxxx  
It seems that big technology corporations are losing or have lost their drive to innovate and instead would rather concentrate on marketing their existing products to consumers,
Comment?


That seems such a broad brush, opinion-based statement. Do you have any actual evidence for this perceived loss of innovative drive?

[Edited on 12-3-2016 by blogfast25]

BromicAcid - 12-3-2016 at 07:03

Many of the larger companies fold a good chunk of their profits back into their companies R&D departments. Here is a quick article from Fortune on the top spenders:

http://fortune.com/2014/11/17/top-10-research-development/

Do you have any specific examples of companies you feel have lost the drive to innovate? In that quick google search above looking for R&D spending numbers I did run across a few articles on Apple spending less on R&D, which would fit your model. But I think as a whole if you look into it, if you're not innovating, you end up dying in the long run.

As for the people running the companies (your title), I cannot talk about trends as a whole. To me the person in charge should be a good manger, salesperson, etc. That does not necessarily mean they should be the best in their field, but that they should do the job of a VP or CEO well. They should be able to listen to their subordinates and advisors for industry specific advice and take it. So even if the person running the chemical company does not have a doctorate in chemistry (or even a BS) I don't see an issue with it.

When I started at Sigma-Aldrich, Jai Nagarkatti was CEO. He had got his degree from Texas A&M in 1976 and did the grunt work of working in the labs, making chemicals. He climbed the corporate ladder over the years and by the end he was CEO of the company. Some of the people I knew had worked with him, everyone said he was a great guy and there was something special about being able to look at his old lab notebooks if you wanted to. And he also turned out to be an excellent businessman growing the Sigma-Aldrich brand. And that was the most important part, if he had been a poor businessman he would have failed in that role even if he was a good chemist.

aga - 12-3-2016 at 11:18

All big companies are run by bean counters.

They figured out a long time back that tomorrow's beans come from today's spend.

They love beans, and need some beans to count tomorrow, so i suspect you'll find your opening statement mistaken.

[Edited on 12-3-2016 by aga]

Sulaiman - 12-3-2016 at 11:41

I agree with aga's first comment

but trends over the past decades appear to me to have been the immediate extraction of wealth,
(anywhere, anyhow)
to the point of selling of future potential wealth,
and consolidation of commercial monopolisation,
hence the mess/debt that (almost) every human on earth seems to be in,
even if you are prudent, your government is not.

During my early employment years R&D was massive in all fields,
but I suspect that now most pharma companies now spend more on marketing than research,
so marketing people should influence where the budget goes.
e.g. treat rather than cure
pure research in fanciful directions died with the cold war.

My apologies to those are free to do pure research, congratulations !

blogfast25 - 12-3-2016 at 12:34

The bean counters of the trans-national giants have also become increasingly good at avoiding spending beans on mundanities like paying taxes. Exploiting loopholes and creating extra ones by buying politicians has been developed into a fine art...

aga - 12-3-2016 at 12:45

Why pay taxes if you can legally avoid them ?

Backhanders are entirely legal, with the proviso that you're not caught.

Mostly this means giving the the right Value(s) to the right People.
(Miscalculation=caught, which makes it illegal)

blogfast25 - 12-3-2016 at 13:15

Quote: Originally posted by aga  

Backhanders are entirely legal, with the proviso that you're not caught.



Bribing lawmakers to make laws that make bribing lawmakers legal is perfectly legal.

Young inmate to older inmate: 'what you in for?'. Older inmate: 'I got caught'.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 12-3-2016 at 13:16

Quote: Originally posted by xxxxx  
It seems that big technology corporations are losing or have lost their drive to innovate and instead would rather concentrate on marketing their existing products to consumers,
Comment?

Have seen this. Lot of repackaging going on.

Still plenty of innnovation though.

aga - 12-3-2016 at 13:54

Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
Bribing lawmakers to make laws that make bribing lawmakers legal is perfectly legal.

Consider the relationship of Lawmaker to Prisoner (or any less powerful citizen) to be the same as Predator to Prey.

Makes more sense that way.

Also explains why a Judge gets paid a HUGE whack of $ each month - don't want them getting bribed by the rabble !

That's the reality, despite illusions of impossibilities such as 'Fair' or 'Equal'.

Not even all atoms of the same element are Equal.

Work it up from there.

Feck, This is chemopolitics now.

Freedom for Hydrogen ! Lithium has Rights !

blogfast25 - 12-3-2016 at 17:18

Quote: Originally posted by aga  
Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
Bribing lawmakers to make laws that make bribing lawmakers legal is perfectly legal.

Consider the relationship of Lawmaker to Prisoner (or any less powerful citizen) to be the same as Predator to Prey.

Makes more sense that way.



'The poor and the moderately impoverished are the wealthy's great gold mine".