Monday, April 21, 2008

Questions I've been mulling for the past couple of days


Which one company, today, will do the most good for the American public? The world as a whole? (I don't mean to emphasize the current day, April 21.)

Which company, to date, has done the most good for the American public? The world as a whole? (The question was originally asked to mean company still in business, but could be extended to include those that no longer operate.)

What scenario would you prefer: Good leaders in bad institutional structures, or bad leaders in good institutional structures? Who could do better? Who could do more harm? Who is prevented from acting like they want to the most? (Define "good" and "bad" as you wish, though as an exercise in reality, don't assume too violently either way.)

My choices in the comments...

4 comments:

Matt E. Ryan said...

In order: Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and bad leaders in good institutional structures

I'm most uncertain about the second question. Seems there are a lot of arguments that could be made in a variety of manners to address that question.

Justin M Ross said...

Wal-Mart (in America) & McDonalds (world as a whole), Microsoft (both U.S. and world), Bad leaders in good institutions.

Will Luther said...

Predicting today is tough. I am going with Google or Wikipedia. Never before has so much information been so easy to obtain.

Microsoft has certainly made us more productive (and probably gets my vote). But I would also consider companies like Ford and John Deere for increasing productivity on farms, thus freeing up resources to develop everything else.

Definitely bad leaders in good institutional structures.

Angus said...

Nice Post. I say google and disney. also bad leaders in good institutional structures.