Mentatul

Category: Corporations

News about economic entities.

  • Corporations vs The Public

    Corporations vs The Public

    Back in September of 2017, I met Oliwer, a Norwegian Green Peace activist looking for donations in Stockholm. He told me that they’re trying to stop the Norwegians from drilling for oil in the Arctic. He also told me about how a powerful, profitable company involved in logging is attempting to disrupt the environmental organization by suing it for a massive amount in damages to their business.

    I asked him to tell me more, as it was hard to understand for me how such a thing could even work. My image of Green Peace was that of a world-wide, semi-decentralized network of agents (mostly volunteers). It’s hard to kill such an organization, especially given the volunteering aspect. Unfortunately, most money still leaves a trail (I’d switch to donations via cryptocurrencies if I were Green Peace).

    I promised the man that instead of donating money, I’ll donate time and do what I do best: investigate and write. The case he told me about is only one of the many times corporations and even governments have went after Green Peace^. It is, however, one of the most ridiculous (although admittedly not as ridiculous as when the government of Australia tried to basically pay a corporation to sue Green Peace^).

    The case the activist I met last year was referring to is that of Resolute^, a company in the tree-cutting business (wording intended). The firm went as far as using RICO^, an act conceived and used against the mafia, to go after the environmental organization. That’s almost as preposterous as the mafia using the act to go after the government. Fortunately, both major Resolute cases against Green Peace have been thrown out of courts, including the case the activist was talking about:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_Forest_Products#Greenpeace

    I don’t want to even imagine what would happen if a lawsuit manages to eventually kill a major organization working for protecting the ecosystem from the rampant expansion of human industry. Setting that sort of precedent is extremely dangerous. Green Peace is not without its faults^, but compare it to the mining industry^ or to some automakers^.

    And since the seed for this article was planted in Stockholm and I brought up the mining industry, I’ll close with one more recent example of criminal negligence on the part of mining companies. This time it’s about a Swedish company called Boliden.

    Last year, the company was sued, here in Sweden^, by Chileans who suffered due to living close to the toxic waste that had been dumped^ by a company that Boliden employed in order to move the poison from Sweden to Chile. The court ruled in favor of Boliden^, which is not surprising given that this was taking place in the city where the company was founded.

    It’s a typical black & white ruling that doesn’t even offer an apology (however symbolic) to the victims; not even acknowledging that Boliden had zero interest about how its toxic waste was being stored; ignoring the fact that a well-off country conveniently dumped poison in another part of the world. By the way, this is the same Swedish company responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in Spain^.

    To ensure that our children benefit from healthy living conditions, I suggest taking part into and protecting the institutions that are concerned with the future of our ecosystem and making sure that those that disrespect the environment pay a hefty price for their negligence.

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  • Amazon Is Interesting These Years

    Amazon Is Interesting These Years

    Every decade or so, we get a couple of very interesting companies to keep an eye on. I’m not referring here to being profitable (even though that’s often the case). It’s about being interesting, as in ground-breaking, mind-bending, evolutionary. This is not a recipe for long-term success, as these companies can either become nearly-unshakable, established names, or end up fading into mediocrity.

    Amazon is most definitely a company to watch out for. It has historically been doing quite well for itself, but as this decade approaches its end, things are getting really interesting. Here’s a very well written and thought-provoking article about the firm:

    https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/14/why-amazon-is-eating-the-world/^

    Even as Amazon draws closer to creating its own delivery service^ (and soon after, taking over the world) the company’s stock has suffered recently from a couple of direct attacks from the Trump Tactical Twitter Terror Torrent^, the White House’s newly found weapon of mass distraction. While it’s true that Amazon has dodged paying^ a lot of taxes, seeing this criticism coming from a master of tax evasion^ is somewhat tragi-comical. Note to self: one day find out who are the investors who profited the most from the dips in Amazon stock caused by the TTTTT^.

    I’m pretty sure Amazon will continue to grow its business under almost any conditions can be thrown at it. The reason is culture. I believe Amazon managed to implement a culture of innovation that not only outpaces all its competitors, but is also very quick to adapt to changes in its economic and technologic environment.

    I’m not sure if we should cry rivers for bankrupt retailers, but we should definitely cry rivers for the working conditions in some Amazon warehouses^. Keep in mind that this merciless economic ecosystem^ is of our own making^.

    If during the coming years Amazon manages to become an almost transparent bridge between manufacturers and customers, it’s only the other retailers who lose. I emphasized the word “transparent” because sooner or later, Amazon will have to alter its business model in order to adapt to an economy where, other than monthly or seasonal exhibitions, customers will meet manufacturers online, with little to no mediation. It’s already happening through markets such as Etsy^, but will accelerate thanks to cryptocurrencies and other novel, yet to be imagined, means of doing commerce.

    It won’t make me happy if small retailers might have to close shop, but perhaps it would be more pleasant for them to automate their logistics, sell online and spend the rest of their time doing more creative stuff. On the other hand, having a physical shop to go and test a product is quite valuable, albeit this is changing due to an increasingly flexible returns policy. Given the current trends, the job of being a retailer will eventually be completely automated, just like all other non-creative jobs. Or, I should say, the non-creative aspects of being a retailer will be automated, leaving creativity and originality as the valuable differentiator.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/02866-AmazonInterestingTheseDays-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Amazon Is Interesting These Years’ desc=’I'm pretty sure Amazon will continue to grow its business under almost any conditions can be thrown at it.’]

  • That Pepsi Commercial

    That Pepsi Commercial

    This nicely written article on Wired says it all: sometimes corporations are so tone-deaf that they manage the impossible: uniting the Internet:

    https://www.wired.com/2017/04/pepsi-ad-internet-response/^

    I am saddened by the fact that Pepsi took a noble message and a beautiful story only to ruin everything by having a script and implementation so utterly disrespectful towards minorities, women and social classes. Pepsi wants to say “we should look beyond social classes”, but instead highlights the ugly differences that exist between the privileged and the other 99%. The commercial is also a rather sad mix of cliché and kitsch.

    Bottom line? It’s bad taste. Just like Pepsi and the rest of the canned sugar industry.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/02040-PepsiCommercial-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’That Pepsi Commercial’ desc=’Pepsi took a noble message and a beautiful story only to ruin everything by having a script and implementation so utterly disrespectful towards minorities, women and social classes.’]

  • Big Pharma Finds Itself in the Spotlight Again

    Big Pharma Finds Itself in the Spotlight Again

    Now and then, the dirty tactics of Big Pharma burst out into the open. At the end of 2015, the disgusting maneuvers of Valeant came to light^. Then-CEO, Martin Shkreli, laughed at and insulted the representatives of the people^. We might sometimes dislike politicians, but the arrogance and greediness of these pharmaceutical companies is absolutely staggering.

    Last week, another drug maker entered the spotlight. Mylan, makers of allergy shot EpiPen have been greedily and unscrupulously raising the price of their products:

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/24/white-house-epipen-price-hiles-raise-moral-questions/89269028/^

    Mylan promised to do something about the situation^, even though the company’s decision has left more than a few experts in the field rather confused. In the meantime, people with low income that depend on these products are sacrificing the quality of their life to fill Mylan’s coffers. This takes “unfair” to a whole new level.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/01010-EpiPenMylan-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Big Pharma Finds Itself in the Spotlight Again’ desc=’Now and then, the dirty tactics of Big Pharma burst out into the open. Mylan, makers of allergy shot EpiPen have been greedily and unscrupulously raising the price of their products.’]

  • Mitsubishi’s 25 Years of Lies

    Mitsubishi’s 25 Years of Lies

    Not even a year has passed since Volkswagen was caught cheating emission tests. The scandal that followed pummeled the company’s stock value and profits. But now, the German automaker has to stand aside for a bit, because we have a new champion of deception. Mitsubishi has been at it for 25 years:

    http://time.com/4308223/mitsubishi-motors-fuel-testing-cheating/^

    It’s almost impossible to estimate how much damage this has done to human health in Japan, but it’s probably a lot. By doctoring emission tests, there was less pressure for the company to improve its cars. Those cars are still out there on the streets and they won’t be going anywhere for some time.

    Studies regarding how many people die yearly due to air pollution are inconclusive. This one puts the figure at three million, yearly^. What is certain is that pollution will shorten and decrease the quality of life for everybody. What’s even scarier is that, by now, it’s pretty obvious that most vehicles on our streets today have been sold with understated pollution records (other companies have been caught cheating or admitted that this is a wide-spread practice). Exactly on the day when I published this article, Suzuki was in the news^ regarding their fuel economy lies.

    I’ve said a while back that we’re partially to blame for the behavior of companies in the past decades. I don’t want to defend Mitsubishi, but the company has an additional excuse in the fact that it’s from Japan. Their culture is one of extreme performance. There’s even a special word for people who die from being over-worked^.

    Under these conditions, I am not entirely surprised that a bunch of engineers decided to lie to their superiors in order to look well at the salary review. In more ways than one, Japan is one of the worst cases of mixing Western values with another culture.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/00599-Mitsubishi25YearsLies-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Mitsubishi's 25 Years of Lies’ desc=’Not even a year has passed since Volkswagen was caught cheating emission tests. Mitsubishi has been at it for 25 years.’]