Biology metaphors are similar to cancer.
Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
31–40 of 313 posts
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#32There are 2 states in the forest: growing trees and rotting trees. Nothing in between. So this cancer analogy is a bit absurd. The same with business: business is growing or dying, I am not buying “we don’t want grow” argument.
> The same with business: business is growing or dying
I know plenty of people with small businesses that are neither growing nor dying, just paying the bills and making enough money to live happily. I'm kind of scared that people can't even imagine this is a possibility to be honest...
Not everything has to be the next facebook and have 100% yoy growth
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#33I'm not the biggest fan of this analogy. I find it reductionist to the point it loses it's meaning. Actually the whole human body is constantly growing, not just cancers. I'm am growing new skin cells as we speak, approximately every x3 weeks I shed old skin cells so need new ones. The problem with cancerous cells is that the body stops recycling them and so then they grow unchecked. Modern companies are more like sk…
The human body is regrowing, to repair and replace the dying parts. But after reaching it's endgame (around mid-tweenties) it's not growing in size or complexity. Companies and cancer are different in that regard. Cancer is growing without aim and purpose for the host. Companies are similar, though not in all cases. Small companies need to grow to a point were they are safe to survive any little problem. Big companies sometimes reach a point of stability, and maintain their size for a long time. But in other times they grow and grow and grow without any real aim, just for the aim of growing and doing something.
The result is that you have companies playing on many fields, delivering low quality for the customer, but often still impacting the market because of their sheer size and market-power on other fields. It is indeed disputable whether this behaviour is really justified and good on for the customer, or more harmful.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#34I'm not the biggest fan of this analogy. I find it reductionist to the point it loses it's meaning. Actually the whole human body is constantly growing, not just cancers. I'm am growing new skin cells as we speak, approximately every x3 weeks I shed old skin cells so need new ones. The problem with cancerous cells is that the body stops recycling them and so then they grow unchecked. Modern companies are more like sk…
Actually your skin cell analogy is a good one, in that companies should also be constantly recycled by the market.
One of the major problems in the modern west, especially the US, is that when crises have hit we’ve conflated helping “the people” with saving their employer. Imagine how differently things would look today if in 2008 there has been no bailouts for corporations, only direct aid to affected individuals.
To me, “too big to fail” is when we’ve turned companies cancerous.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes – until you bring the stock market and investors into the picture. Oftentimes, companies will have a legal obligation to their stockholders to (attempt to) maximise profit…
Are you suggesting that the stock market and investors are carcinogens?
And the legal environment is carcinogenic, too.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#36I often question the motives of my company. It has only 100 or so employees. Has been in business for 25+ years. But we are on a continual drive to increase sales, hire new people, add size to the facilities. But it wasn't always this way. It only happened once it went public. Now we are working for the investors. They need to see an increasing return on their investment. Management choices are no longer about the customer or providing a great product/service. It's about squeezing margins and duping the customer to join our mailing list or accept cookies. Otherwise "the list won't grow". And how can we market to more and more people if we can't track how many pages they've viewed?
I've gone a bit off track there, but the point being, there IS no answer when I've explicitly asked "why" with regards to these things. Nobody knows. They just know they have "targets" and the targets are constantly moving.
/rant over
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#37To push the metaphor a bit further isn't humanity itself a kind of cancer of the earth?
It's expected that the population will stabilize around 10-15 billions.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#38I'm not the biggest fan of this analogy. I find it reductionist to the point it loses it's meaning. Actually the whole human body is constantly growing, not just cancers. I'm am growing new skin cells as we speak, approximately every x3 weeks I shed old skin cells so need new ones. The problem with cancerous cells is that the body stops recycling them and so then they grow unchecked. Modern companies are more like sk…
In many cases, growth is evidence that you've solved a problem in a way people find compelling. Look at Signal. I think its growth is a really positive development.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes – until you bring the stock market and investors into the picture. Oftentimes, companies will have a legal obligation to their stockholders to (attempt to) maximise profit…
Maximizing profit is a good thing.
In the same way explosion is a good thing, if confined within and channeled by an internal combustion engine. Outside, usually not so much.
Re: Businesses should try to be the best, not the biggest
#40There are 2 states in the forest: growing trees and rotting trees. Nothing in between. So this cancer analogy is a bit absurd. The same with business: business is growing or dying, I am not buying “we don’t want grow” argument.
Businesses cannot and need not grow forever. I don’t buy your argument. Stable businesses can and do exist.