U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
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Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#2He makes some great points. People don't care where their good come from, they just want them to be cheap and high quality. # hour workday? Unbelievable.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#3I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#4Talk about a financial blowout. Sounds like his intent is to waste Titan's time writing negative remarks and being disrespectful. I agree they shouldn't do business with France, but to be so rude is, well...rude.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#5He makes some great points. People don't care where their good come from, they just want them to be cheap and high quality. # hour workday? Unbelievable.
Well, on the one hand people don't care where their goods come from when they buy them (or more to the point, they don't care under which conditions they were manufactured). But then, on the other hand, they don't want to have the standard of living of the people working in those factories. Short-term self-interest tends to make people ignore that in the long-term this model is not sustainable.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#6>>Alas, America isn’t what it used to be: Insulting the French doesn’t seem to be rewarded by the stock market, and Titan is down about 1% so far today.
As if. Correlation is not causation.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#7The CEO is Maurice Taylor, and he's used to say the same bullshit to US politicians.
That guy is pretty crazy.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#8I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.
If I was to pretend I was the Titan CEO and read into the letter deeper, it's almost a backhanded way of saying "look, you're probably not going to find any buyer for your firm and I'll helpfully tell you why because it seems your management and unions are in denial".
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#9I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.
While scathing, it is also very informative. "Not interested" and a vague "lookin' better elsewhere" doesn't get into the reality of "why?"
Methinks he did them a great service in being brutally honest. Those trying to solve the obvious problems will make much greater progress with such a letter in hand, rather than the usual apologetic tact. "Helpful are the wounds of a friend..." I'm sure he would, in fact, like to buy a French tire factory, but ridiculous pay for minuscule work makes for an offer no less insulting than his reply.
Re: U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
#10>>Alas, America isn’t what it used to be: Insulting the French doesn’t seem to be rewarded by the stock market, and Titan is down about 1% so far today. As if. Correlation is not causation.
This isn't even correlation, since when did insulting the french correlate to a rise/fall in stock prices?