Home Improvement → Re: What country are sharp window air conditioners made?

And that's EXACTLY what happened with the HBS types at my former employer, too. We went from being a ho-hum, also-ran company to a Wall Street darling, our stock went from the teens to close to 100, our profits (on paper, at least) soared, we went on a major acquisition binge, and our new management was being lauded as "world class" and "unbeatable" (they themselves started to believe this, too, and said some things on the record that were embarrassing for many of us at the time, and are extremely embarrassing now in hindsight). And then the bottom fell out (oops!), so now they're hanging on for dear life. If you really knew anything about how Wall Street works you wouldn't be at all surprised by this, and you would know that Wall Street types jump from company to company doing this, and that there is even a playbook for it, so it's all very predictable.

You: "It's amazing."
Me: "DON'T DRINK THE F'ING KOOL-AID!!! PREPARE TO ABANDON SHIP!!!"

Those of us who didn't drink the Kool-Aid found it very difficult to reason with those who did, many of whom have since gotten royally screwed. The lucky ones either left voluntary and cashed-out while the stock was still relatively high, or maybe got cut loose and did the same. But the people who ultimately ended up with ownership of the company (after much "creative" financing) have lost something on the order of $20 billion or so. This isn't counting the dollar value of the loans which have been taken out, trying to keep things afloat, and which will probably never be repaid (these are in "interest-only" mode right now, and the company still can't keep up with the payments).

"Former CEO of Cummins, former CEO of Rambus, former CEO of Dana." So were these folks fired, were they forced to take early retirement, did they resign in disgrace, or what?

The CEOs of Cummins and Dana retired. They were my dad's generation. They're probably in their mid-70s now. Rambus CEO is now CEO of some other tech company. He's probably only in his early 50s.

Anyway, I have nothing other than to say that your company, your career and your experiences are not mine, won't be and never have been. We all make choices and take certain risks Some lose and some win. I've positioned myself to try to win in most cases. Does that mean I take less risk and have less reward? Probably. But I'm comfortable this way. Others are more comfortable with the woe-is-me attitude that's so prevalent today.