For instance, Mc Donalds, in order to do maximum business, needs to walk the line between love and hate. No one actually believes those fresh food commercials, Mickey D's. But they do appease us enough to ignore on occasion how gross your food is.
For some reason Blogger refuses to allow anymore images in this post, but I intended to contrast how although presidential candidates definitely are hated by some, part of their job is ensuring that they are generally loved. After all, four years isn't really long enough to get a bunch of horrible atrocities done right away (or at least, it's not long enough for us to forget about it). So they really must push the image that they're loved, not that they're feared or respected.
Generally, though I am sick, this seemed to mostly make sense to me... But if I charged over some parts or rambled please let me know, I'll explain myself more. Largely though, all I mean is that the US President both can't and shouldn't follow Machiavelli's "advice". On the other hand, corporate business, although they probably shouldn't, definitely does follow the harsh "realities" of The Prince.
The idea that businesses follow Machiavellian principles is very interesting. I just had to watch a movie about Enron for my Business 1.0 class and there are many parallels between how they ran their business and Machiavelli's philosophy. Although obviously all corporations aren't as extreme as Enron, it seems that in the business world, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes to stay at the top, to stay above your competition, especially in a market economy. For some, that could includes outsourcing and underpaying factory workers overseas or it could mean making up profits using market to market accounting a la Enron.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, businesses with so called "allies" will sometimes even manipulate them to achieve success. Enron threatened to stop partnering with Merrill Lynch as long as they continued employing an analyst that made Enron look bad. Enron maintained the more powerful hand in the alliance and won out in Machiavellian style.
P.S. Sorry for beating Enron to death but I literally just watched the movie, so it's the easiest example to think of.
Haha it's okay, if I'd had to watch that movie I would use what I could out of it too. And yes, the dog-eat-dog nature of business reminds me a lot of Machiavelli. He supports brute force, clever cunning, deceit and playing dirty, all things big business is famous for!
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