That has got to be the single most refreshing thing I have read in months.
Ah yes, T J Rodgers... got to love him... -g
#reply-4386086
(original source: cypress.com )
and for more on him... (though a little outdated 1997)
americanenterprise.org
<snip> -roflol-
TAE: You have a Ph.D., so obviously you’re a big
believer in education. But there was a time in
Silicon Valley when you could be a college
dropout and make it.
RODGERS: Still is.
TAE: How would your life have changed if you
had dropped out of college instead of getting a
doctorate?
RODGERS: Maybe I could be Bill Gates instead
of me.
We have several important non-degreed
managers within this company. I have two busi-ness
cards. One has my name, my company, my
fax, and my telephone. And the other is what I
call my “asshole business card,” which has got
“T.J. Rodgers, Ph.D.” on it. I use it whenever I’m
in Europe.
<snip>
TAE: Do you have a favorite author?
RODGERS: Ayn Rand. Do you see that stack
of paperbacks over there? That’s all Rand.
She’s the patron saint of capitalism. She and
Milton Friedman.
We just finished a two-year course where I
brought in a Randian philosopher of capitalism
and he lectured the executive staff.
TAE: How healthy is capitalism today?
RODGERS: Most businessmen in the United
States, and in particular the Fortune 100 types, are
not capitalists at all. They don’t think like capitalists.
They obtained their position the way politicians
obtain their position. They had the right
constituencies, they built the right bridges, they
didn’t burn the wrong bridges, and eventually
they got elected to run a company that somebody
else—typically, somebody greater—invented.
The true capitalists were the so-called robber barons who
helped build America. And the robber barons ceded their
wealth poorly to a lot of people who were not capitalists.
Statist CEOs who act more like politicians, who support gov-ernment industry cooperation —translation, the pork-barrel
system—who don’t mind losing control of the assets that
they’ve been entrusted with, who voluntarily divert assets in their corporations to non-wealth-generating causes due to po-litical pressures: they are the enemies of capitalism.
If you look at a true capitalist corporation, it serves its customers, serves its shareholders, and by necessity it serves its employees or it wouldn’t exist.
What many corporations are attempting to do today is to get
some sort of angle: to wire in benefits from the government or to wire in monopolies—like cable—so that they can own a market and be abusive to their customers. It is those kinds of non-capitalist corporations run by non-capitalist individuals that give us a black eye.
TAE: Te ll us about your infamous “nun letter.”
RODGERS: One Friday night, I got my letter from Sister
Gormley, with the signature Xeroxed. It basically says, “We’ve looked at your annual report and it doesn’t have pictures in it, but it looks as if you don’t have any minorities or women on your board.” Translation: We can’t tell for sure, but we think you’re all white guys, and we don’t like that.
She was very ignorant and arrogant. I figured I’d zap her, and in zapping her use it as a bully pulpit. Well, it went beyond my wildest dreams.
TAE: Page one of the Wal l St reet Journal.
RODGERS: And last week a debate at Stanford between me and
Sister Gormley. A friend said, “You realize you can’t win by
beating up a nun in public.” And I said, “Yeah, I know. I’m trying to figure out how to be nice and also flay her.” And I did.
TAE: Did you like her as a person? She was no longer a letter.
RODGERS: She means well. She is not smart. She understands nothing about business.
p.s. happy new year and all the rest -g |
