Into the Vacuum
Several months after I got a dog, I discovered that I also needed a new vacuum cleaner. The dog hair was spreading all over the house, and the old $100 Hoover I had bought with my roommates when I was just out of college couldn't handle it anymore.
I considered buying a Dyson, just because I'd seen the ads so many times. But then I reminded myself I shouldn't give in to the hype (a lesson I learned from my notorious ArchDeluxe experience) and do some research to find out what would be the best vacuum for my needs. I bought a one month subscription to the online Consumer Reports, and I found out that, due to my mix of hardwood floors and carpets, I should probably buy a canister vacuum. The top rated canister vacuum, according to Consumer Reports, was made by Kenmore.
It only took me one vacuum to discover that, all these years, I'd been living with a Yugo when I could have had a Lexus. My Kenmore canister vac does more than pick up dirt, it quietly anticipates my needs and responds always with a purr. When I want to clean hardwood floors, it swooshes up the dirt up with no more noise than a soft summer breeze. When I move to a carpet, it lights up its light and chugs away under its own volition across the floor, just needing my slight touch to guide it along. The old vacuum would often pick up a piece of string and get stuck, emitting a smell like burning plastic. But, when something gets stuck in the Kenmore, it quickly shuts off, and, with the touch of a button, I can get it going again.
So, where I once vacuumed only once every six months at best, I'm now doing it at least every other week.
This has gotten me to think about the life cycles of institutions and what I believe is a creeping sickness in our society -- the belief that increasing shareholder value can be the sole purpose of corporations. Somewhere in Hoffman Estates, there's a vacuum genius, tinkering away with a body of knowledge that Sears has built up from over a half of a century of making better and better vacuums. And I think, judging from the felicitousness of my canister vac, this unsung genius cares little about Sears' shareholders, but a lot about building a machine in which he (or she) can take pride.
And yet Sears was just bought by Kmart, solely because investors felt Kmart had a lot of valuable real estate, which drove up their stock price and gave them a lot of cash. I believe Sears is also now more valued for the locations of its stores than for the merchandise it produces and sells, and the people who run it and who own it are just concerned about squeezing as much cash out of it as possible, whether the institution survives or not.
So my question is this -- when we're all investment bankers, whose going to make good vacuums?
I considered buying a Dyson, just because I'd seen the ads so many times. But then I reminded myself I shouldn't give in to the hype (a lesson I learned from my notorious ArchDeluxe experience) and do some research to find out what would be the best vacuum for my needs. I bought a one month subscription to the online Consumer Reports, and I found out that, due to my mix of hardwood floors and carpets, I should probably buy a canister vacuum. The top rated canister vacuum, according to Consumer Reports, was made by Kenmore.
It only took me one vacuum to discover that, all these years, I'd been living with a Yugo when I could have had a Lexus. My Kenmore canister vac does more than pick up dirt, it quietly anticipates my needs and responds always with a purr. When I want to clean hardwood floors, it swooshes up the dirt up with no more noise than a soft summer breeze. When I move to a carpet, it lights up its light and chugs away under its own volition across the floor, just needing my slight touch to guide it along. The old vacuum would often pick up a piece of string and get stuck, emitting a smell like burning plastic. But, when something gets stuck in the Kenmore, it quickly shuts off, and, with the touch of a button, I can get it going again.
So, where I once vacuumed only once every six months at best, I'm now doing it at least every other week.
This has gotten me to think about the life cycles of institutions and what I believe is a creeping sickness in our society -- the belief that increasing shareholder value can be the sole purpose of corporations. Somewhere in Hoffman Estates, there's a vacuum genius, tinkering away with a body of knowledge that Sears has built up from over a half of a century of making better and better vacuums. And I think, judging from the felicitousness of my canister vac, this unsung genius cares little about Sears' shareholders, but a lot about building a machine in which he (or she) can take pride.
And yet Sears was just bought by Kmart, solely because investors felt Kmart had a lot of valuable real estate, which drove up their stock price and gave them a lot of cash. I believe Sears is also now more valued for the locations of its stores than for the merchandise it produces and sells, and the people who run it and who own it are just concerned about squeezing as much cash out of it as possible, whether the institution survives or not.
So my question is this -- when we're all investment bankers, whose going to make good vacuums?
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