On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:05:04 -0700, Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

Today it is beef....tomorrow toys...the next day...well something
else...fasteners, tires, tools?

It would seem that lack of quality control has just cost this company
its existence and its employees their livelihoods.

Should a company be responsible for its own quality control or is it a
responsibility of government to protect us?

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks

TMT
snip
=======

An additional thought.

I am assisting in the evaluation of the potential of adding a
masters program in "Knowledge Management." As part of the
evaluation, a fairly comprehensive review of the literature is
being done.

One item that a [very] few writers mention is the expected life
span and life cycle of corporations and other organization.

A google search disclosed this data:
Average life spans of companies listed on the S&P index for the
years cited.
60 Years in 1958
35 Years in 1978
25 Years in 1998
10 Years in 2018
SOURCE: MCKINSEY & CO.

Topp's age is given as 67 in the article, thus it existed between
two and three times the normal/average corporate life span.

The importance of this is that "for profit" corporations and
(other organizations) may have natural "life spans" and "magic"
programs such as "Knowledge Management" can do no more to extend
the allotted life span of a corporation than a goat gland
transplant [or Viagra] can extend the human lifespan.

Indeed, it may well be that Topp's, GMC's, Ford's, Chrysler's,
etc. "problems" are simply those of corporate senility and
senescence rather than diseases to be cured, are unavoidable, and
the terminal stages or phases for corporations that survive long
enough.

FWIW -- this appears to support the proposal to put a strict time
limit on all corporate charters of 50 years or so, after which
the corporation would have to be liquidated, all bonds paid off,
etc.

Some URLs of interest on this topic a

http://www.learning-org.com/01.08/0054.html

http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdf/10....2480XADS0501_5

http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/con...iihara/02.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=ctA...hEQ5YbC4sk_ETA

http://books.google.com/books?id=XZk...kelsgLkaxz_akk

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...ziff16893/pg_6

Watch the wrap on the long URLs.


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
============
Merchants have no country.
The mere spot they stand on
does not constitute so strong an attachment
as that from which they draw their gains.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),
U.S. president. Letter, 17 March 1814.