There used to be antitrust laws(it seems the only thing they were good for was to rip asunder “good monopolies”
I have held stock since in the company since the '80s, and I liked its earlier name--Tricon Global Restaurants--much better than the "Yum" name
I thought that back in the 80’s KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut were owned by Pepsi.
@“the same mountainbike”, I’m with you on the CEO’s responsibility for everything. I was just quibbling with your job description for her.
Burger King is owned by Tim Hortons of Canada.
“I thought that back in the 80’s KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut were owned by Pepsi.”
Yes, they were.
Just to clarify, I have held PepsiCo stock since the late '80s.
In 1997, they spun-off the restaurant division, thus creating Tricon Global Restaurants as a new corporate entity. A few years later, Tricon changed its name to Yum.
My bad. A burger or chicken leg all tastes the same anyway. I think it also depends on whether it is company owned or franchisee. Point was its the same small group of folks that control a lot of the food that is consumed, but I’m sure they are extremely interested in providing high quality nutritious menu items.
Jt, it matters not whether she had anything to do with it. It’s her problem now.
Re: the differences in the job of an engineer and a CEO, an engineer isn’t what you DO, it’s what you ARE. You don’t stop being an engineer when you become a CEO, your focus simply changes as your responsibility changes. I know many MDs, massage therapists, attorneys, physicists, and even auto mechanics who’ve turned to teaching for one reason or another. They didn’t stop being MDs, massage therapists, attorneys, physicists, and even auto mechanics, they just use their knowledge differently now. And, when I became a Sr. manager I didn’t stop being an engineer, I just used the knowledge differently. I’m not sure I adapted to the politics well, but that’s a different discussion.
"My impression of her so far is that she has far more politician in her than engineer. "
I responded to this statement, where you implied she should be an engineer, and not a politician. Since you were a high level manager, you should know that as someone moves to higher levels of management, they can’t respond to issues as they did when they were engineers. You should also know that for a gigantic problem, the spokesperson responds after a group discusses the issue and defines the response. That is why lower level employees are forbidden from discussing issues in public. If you want to discuss this some other time that is fine. You brought the subject up, though.
There’s a great demand for scape goats these days. I wonder what the pay scale is for that position.
I understand where you were coming from now jt. We’re good.
And you’re right, I’m the one that said she’s acting more like a politician than an engineer… but not IMHO acting like a good manager should. Warranty denial based on the company having gone bankrupt and now being a “new company” could IMHO damage the brand, and that could be far more expensive in the long run that accepting responsibility.
But I also realize that she’s doing this under the direction of the board. I’m sure they’ve had long and in-depth discussions in the boardroom, and she’s carrying out the decisions. That is one part of the job that sometimes makes engineers bad managers. It can be hard to deal with that internal conflict.
Yeah, all that politics kept my wife from running for PTA Chairman. She didn’t want to be in charge of damage control if something went very wrong at the high school. The politics kept me from moving into management, too. I much prefer being an engineer, even though at senior level I have to deal with managers in other organizations as well as mine. At least I don’t have to be quite as cost driven as they do.
One of my fleet accounts had 7 departments and while I tried to deal with the operations manager for all vehicles occasionally the internal politics of the corporation forced me to meet with department managers whose professional egos required more attention than their vehicles. And one department in particular would delay paying for repairs if the manager felt he was not given the respect he was due. In the end refusing to take in the next vehicle from that department would cause things in accounts payable to fall into place for me. As much as I hated dealing with corporate politics it was somewhat unavoidable. And this is just a rural town of 30,000. I can’t imagine dealing with the politics in a real corporation like GM.
You have to understand the fine line between obsolescence and new sales,vs durability,make something too well and durable(as evidenced by a lot of contributors and posters on this site) and you wont generate near as many new sales,when the practical and frugal keep driving what they already have,that being said,there are some manufacturers that produce a good many shameful products.
One of my acquaintences who owns a dealership now was looking a good Nissan Sentra over(ran fine,had a bad drivers seat,good shape otherwise,said it had a negative value(think it was even paid off)casually inquired as to the cost of the vehicle on the the back lot,He gave me some outrageous figure and that was probably 20 years ago,so unless you are well connected or rich enough to warrant being brown nosed,you are going to pay handsomely.
Could it be that the new crop of engineers know all about electronics and software but have no clue about manual piano wire controls because they’ve never seen them?
A possibility Bing.