Tuesday 18 January 2000

Pic of the day: "The dinosaurs too grew bigger and bigger, and then they died."
Screenshot from Civilization II, Fantastic Worlds add-on.

The file wasn't there, but the headache has improved quite a bit and the throat has improved a lot. As well it should, as I spent my entire lunch break hunting for the Curamed colostrum tablets. They used to be sold in grocery shops and supermarkets, and even in kiosks. Suddenly they were nowhere to be found. It could just be that the current epidemic of flu has emptied the shelves, but perhaps not. The apothecary had some left, but I had to stand in line for quite a while.

(Meta note: While there, I looked at some other cold related stuff, included something called Echinacea. Well, at least that's the way it is spelled in my One Year Ago entry. For some obscure reason, I must have been thinking of that product then too.)

Standing in line for quite a long time with little visible activity made me ponder the role of monopolies and near-monopolies. The apothecaries are pretty near monopolies on lots of drugs here. Now in all honesty there is more than one such shop in Kristiansand, but they still don't exactly have to drag customers in from the streets. I am convinced that this situation leads a company to take its customers for granted. After all, I work in a state-owned monopoly institution myself, and we'd generally be a lot happier if not for the customers.

(Meta note: I can't help but noticing that one year ago, I also commented on our lack of competition. I noticed this after I had written the first draft for today's entry.)

Staffman and I were waiting for some printer ink cartridges from the office supply company Tybring-Gjedde. They took their sweet time, in our opinion, given that they actually have a branch here in town. Ordering by phone was rather time consuming too. I see the company took a loss last quarter. I wonder what they have done in reaction to their problems. If they are a large enough company, chances are that they have reacted by increasing the wages of the top bosses and sacking some of the people who actually work there. This would help explain the unexpected slowness. Now, this is just a guess. I notice that this is the preferred way of dealing with problems in large organizations.

Which is why I am not overly worried about the sudden growth of AOL as they "merged" with Time-Warner. (Bought the bigger company, actually.) They are still not large enough to be a monopoly, but they are large enough that they are likely to go into dinosaur mode, as outlined above. When a company grows large enough, the wall of yes-men surrounding the CEOs will grow dense enough that they can collectively shut out every shred of realism. The dinosaurs too grew bigger and bigger, and then they died. I think there are natural limits to how large companies can be before they lose their way.

There's also the small detail that a strong brand name is a double edged sword. When you are instantly recognizable, people also know who to avoid if you mess up. Like Coca Cola did in Belgium, where dozens of kids got slightly poisoned from the company's soft drinks. A backlash followed in large parts of Europe. And you know how some people go out of their way to avoid Microsoft products even when these are good and cheap alternatives. I used to feel the same way about IBM. I generally root for the underdog. (Perhaps because I used to be one...)

Anyway, I feel better now. Not in purrfect health, but then again I am 41 years old and male. I'm quite happy to be alive, have all limbs and senses (except some common sense, perhaps) and generally be free from pain and fear almost all the time. Yay life! (Toasts in olive oil)