"The underlying assumption that has especially underpinned policy over the past decades in the UK has been that you just can't get efficiency and imagination within a public enterprise, and that in a private enterprise you are somehow guaranteed to get that stuff. And I think that is just lazy thinking."

"I'm afraid management sounded the death nell for the British Car industry long before the trade unions got in on the act. Lack of investment for product development, outdated models, cobbled together cars using outdated technology..."

Wise words from McGrath of Harlow and Rog Peek. It's a wonder to me that any private company keeps running. Far too many of them seem to be run by egotistical shits who are unimaginative, unaccountable for their mistakes and have complete contempt for their customers (let alone their workers!). The senior management of a company that I worked for, until recently, were always bleating on about "innovation", yet when you looked at the products that actually got to market 99.9% of them were just copies of other company's products ('mee-toos'). When R&D did actually come up with a truly innovative product senior management/marketing didn't know how to sell it!