Europeans Laughing At American Businesses

from the ha-ha-ha dept

Red Herring has an article from their editor in London telling all of us Americans that the Europeans are laughing at us for our various business scandals over the past year. Europeans, according to this guy, are using this as an opportunity to look down on our way of doing business. My guess is that this article is really something of a troll looking to generate some controversy along the "cultural differences" line. Any time you stereotype an entire group of people by their country, you're just asking for a long, drawn out, and (usually) useless argument.
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  • identicon
    prashant, 6 Jun 2002 @ 11:30am

    Nothing To Laugh At

    That article must be a baiting tactic. It's not Europe doesn't have its own problems. For example today's announcement that debt-heavy may close down. And let's not forget the 3G spectrum debacle.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ed, 6 Jun 2002 @ 1:59pm

    I Almost Agree

    Here's an excerpt:
    the shabby parade of corporate ugliness at WorldCom, Qwest, Global Crossing, Enron, and now Tyco International makes many people over here feel that they're not looking at a few bad apples, but at fundamental problems with the way American business is organized.

    I'd agree with this 100%, as long as you leave out the word "American." No one country has a monopoly on shady or unsound business practices, and anybody who thinks their local businesses are immune will be in for a rude awakening someday.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      lorenzo, 7 Jun 2002 @ 12:53am

      Re: I Almost Agree

      must say I haven t read the article but I ve been closely following the situation and what s really important is not just enron bankrupcy or Tyco scandals (maybe Enron is important), but more Wall Street looking into Microsoft and General Electric ways of managing accoun ts and profits.
      Those are the cornerstones of modern management, Jack Welch is gawd on earth (done my MBA 1999-00, Welch would pop up at every corner)
      so, I would say, forget about the way newspapers and journalists deal with it, consider it is major shake-up in the way corporations are managed, and it is a far reaching change, and the US is leading the way, as usual

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2002 @ 2:13pm

    Who cares what Europeans think?

    This is nothing new. Europeans have this odd belief they're better than everyone. Yet most of this country is full of Europeans that moved across the world in order to get away from their fantastic foods ,organized companies and splendid personalities. Remember... if it wasn't for us you'd all be Germans!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Ryan, 6 Jun 2002 @ 2:45pm

      An American in London

      I have to admit its an amusing article, US culture encourages risk (which tends to mean more failures and more successes). Europe has in general tended to be a little more averted to risk, meaning you have a lot less of that failure stuff (and success stuff!). This is starting to change now through out Europe, so keep your eyes posted for fruits of this effort to encourage start-up growth throughout Europe (p.s. for those of you in the UK, I'm including us too! Remember the Americans consider the UK part of Europe, even if a lot of the UK population doesn't see themselves as European).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    EMan, 7 Jun 2002 @ 12:52am

    For Ever

    Europeans have always laughed at Americans. And always will. Nothing to do with business - Americans are just peculiar.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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