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To: elpolvo who wrote (56235)	11/22/2002 1:09:18 PM
From: Cactus Jack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

LeP, In sports and entertainment venues, the ticket prices vary depending upon the popularity of the performer and the location of the seat. It's not based on the customer, it's driven by demand. True, but professional sports leagues regulate certain practices (i.e. uniforms, league-wide sponsorships, etc.), and I'm surprised MLB allows a team to charge different ticket prices based on the identity of the opposition, which constitutes a type of "admission" that some teams aren't worth as much to see. jpg

To: elpolvo who wrote (56235)	11/22/2002 1:11:24 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Poor leadership leads to layoffs By Jason Jennings Op/Ed - USA TODAY Thu Nov 21, 7:40 AM ET The Business Roundtable last week announced the results of a survey of its membership -- 150 chief executives of leading U.S. companies -- that had one truly astonishing finding: 60% of these CEOs expect their total employment to decline in 2003. In other words, the top leaders of three out of five major firms believe the weak economy will continue, that they must cut costs and that they have no choice but to fire people. These CEOs have embraced the conventional wisdom of Wall Street analysts: If you don't have layoffs during tough times, your firm isn't lean and mean, and you don't have a prayer of becoming highly productive. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong? Don't balance books on workers' backs I recently completed a major research project on the relationship between layoffs and productivity, and I was surprised to discover that the world's most productive firms almost never lay off workers. In fact, they make an explicit promise that their books won't be balanced through layoffs -- not even during deep recessions. Instead, they cut costs and boost demand in other ways. After evaluating the finances of more than 4,000 public and private firms worldwide, my research team and I settled on 80 that topped their peers by every reasonable measure of productivity. Simply put, these firms sold more, spent less and made more profit per employee than their competition, year after year. The most striking trait these 80 productivity superstars shared was their passionate opposition to layoffs, even when the economy was in the dumps. Consider Nucor, America's largest steel maker, which manufactures rolled steel and steel joists. Nucor has reduced the time it takes to produce a ton of steel from 11 hours to 30 minutes -- while increasing its earnings for 30 years in a row. More than 40 U.S. steel companies, stuck with high fixed-cost structures that make it hard to be nimble, have gone bankrupt in recent years. Yet Nucor continues to thrive. It pays its steelworkers $70,000 to $100,000 per year, far above the industry average. And it has never gone through a layoff. ''When business is bad, as it's bound to occasionally be in a highly cyclical industry like ours, the first thing to go is every executive perk and bonus, followed by every plant manager and supervisor giving up theirs,'' says Nucor's CEO, Dan DiMicco. ''Only then are the workers affected. We'll reduce the workweek to five days and then four and, on rare occasions, even three, but we don't lay people off.'' 'Cure' causes more woes Leaders such as DiMicco don't act this way for altruistic reasons. They understand that, except in rare cases, layoffs create more problems than they solve. * When layoffs begin, workers become afraid, distracted and preoccupied with their own financial security. It's hard for them to focus on doing good work. Teamwork suffers as they spend more time covering their rear ends and looking over their shoulders. * Companies that routinely use layoffs to solve short-term problems risk losing their most valuable workers to more stable environments. A great deal of institutional memory also is lost. * Firms that downsize when business is bad face huge recruiting, hiring and training costs to refill jobs when demand recovers. Add the costs of layoffs, including severance packages, and savings evaporate. My advice to those elite CEOs of the Business Roundtable contemplating layoffs: Focus on your shareholders' long-term interests, not the current quarter's profits. Stop trying to impress the Wall Street analysts by cutting staff at the first sign of a downturn. Inspire your workers to help you cut costs and boost demand. And above all, stop talking about layoffs as if they're beyond your control. Ultimately, layoffs are not caused by a weak economy, or industry trends, but by uninspiring leadership. ________________________________________________ Jason Jennings, a management consultant, is the author of Less Is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity as a Competitive Tool in Business. story.news.yahoo.com