My esteemed Corner Office colleague has asked about which companies are truly evil in America. Interesting question, but his piece had a scent of apologia to it, so I thought I'd weigh in with some ideas:
- Don't be fooled if a company changes its name or morphs into something "new." Exhibit A is Altria which not long ago was the parent firm of best-selling cigarette brands like Marlboro, Kraft foods and Miller Beer. Altria and its Philip Morris units were split into a "USA" version headquartered in Richmond and an "International" version based in Switzerland. A major reason for this was to blunt the many legal actions the firms face because their products are deadly. PR people would have you believe that this little bit of legalese automatically absolves the predecessor firm. But if you have a murderer-rapist would you no longer prosecute him because he has changed his name?
- Beware dualistic marketing. Philip Morris USA churns out hundreds of thousands of cigarettes every day but somehow in good conscience urges you not to use its products. Its Web page is full of such admonitions. Philip Morris International is not as subtle. They badly want market share comprised of the millions of smokers in China, Russia, the rest of Asia and Africa. The World Health Organization has come after them for their marketing and their products which will kill millions over coming years. In fact, WHO worries that Philip Morris products will sap health in Thirld World countries too poor to afford treatment for lung and heart ailments related to tobacco smoke. More health problems will emerge as tobacco illness drains scarce health resources.
- ExxonMobil. At the last annual meeting, management apruptly shut down a slate of shareholders resolutions brought by the heirs of founder John D. Rockefeller who want to make sure the company is looking beyond irreplaceable hydrocarbons. Apologists may want to paint such shareholders as looney Susan Sarandon types, but they really are heirs of John D. As they note, the old man himself was a genius at foreseeing the limitations of then-dominant products, such as whale oil. Why can't ExxonMobil prepare for 2050?
- Procter & Gamble. A.G. Lafley may be this decade's best CEO, but lthe firm's leaders weren't always so cool. In 1991, CEO and Chairman Edwin Artzt convinced Cincinnati police to subpoena the telephone records of Wall Street Journal reporter Alecia Swasy who was getting inside reports about the company. Talk about police state strong arm! And Dirk Jaeger, a later CEO, totally blew P&G's market cap.
- Countrywide Financial. This now-defunct king of subprime lending has been sued out the wazoo for bait-and-switch marketing and red-lining.
- Microsoft. OK, maybe they're not as totally monopolistic as before, but that's like saying the SS is a little nicer to you today. They still make us buy medicore operating systems. I just switched my home ofice desktop and am struggling with Vista just as I used to struggle with Windows. I knew I should have bought a Mac!
- Circuit City. Why did I buy a desktop now? Because I got 10 percent off a decent H-P at Circuit City's going out of business sale. Once America's premier electronics retailer, Circuit City ignored years of warning signals. Now, 30,000 will lose their jobs. Sorry about that!
I'd say it's time for clear sight and clear thinking. We don't need apologists for Corporate America.