Read Now Creating a STINK: The Sad Death of Britain's Largest Manufacturer PDF
Based on personal experience, this is an allegory of the problems faced by Britain's biggest manufacturer (let's call it ECI) when it jettisoned its old values. It used money which it didn't have, borrowed heavily from the banks, and bought a very specific set of industries, making and selling medium-value chemicals. It all looked good on paper, freeing ECI from the cyclical nature of its traditional low-margin, high-volume market. Unfortunately, the enterprises which it had purchased were already under the yoke of a shockingly oppressive culture. Middle management were used to getting their own way, utilising duplicity and subterfuge to achieve their sole aim - that of making middle management look good, to a completely uninformed upper management. They'd been getting away with it for decades. Employees referred to their place of work as 'The Dream Factory'. This situation didn't change under ECI ownership. Instead, it got worse, as the stakes were now higher, and the top management even less well informed. The world of Fragrances, and the associated artistic temperament, is very far removed from heavy chemical processes, making thousands of tons of polymers and plastics. The latter requires very specific and quantifiable inputs and outputs. Most of all, it requires Science and Truth. So - what could possibly go wrong in the 'New' ECI?
