Share this page with other Digg Readers or tell others you "Dugg" it.
Share on Reddit
Share this page with other Reddit Readers or delegate points for this page.
Woh! What is this thing?!
This is a social bar from the Dilbert team and our friends at Meebo. It is a cool little feature we've added to Dilbert to make sharing comic strips, Mashups and other content, a simple click of the mouse from any page.
Try it out – use the buttons to instantly send the next funny comic you read to your Facebook status or your Twitter feed. We’re adding even more ways to share soon, so check this space often!
I've heard rumors that, in the distant past, eliminating R&D would hurt the stock price. This dubious rumor has to do with something I believe used to be referred to as "fundamentals" and "market research". It seems that investors viewed the investment process as capitalization of productive enterprises, rather than as financial instruments to generate fees. An enterprise's potential to be productive was thus relevant to the value of its stock! Crazy times those were ... if the rumors can even be credited.
OUCH! My soon-to-be-former company decided to lay off the entire R&D division I'm in. Laughed so much it hurt, or maybe it hurt so much all I could do was laugh.
For the young engineers that maybe don't quite get what's going on here, let me explain.
This is a common tactic when the owners of a company are planning on selling.
The owners will slash R & D. The savings will then make the bottom line look better, thus making it look like the company is more profitable than it really is.
Slashing R & D doesn't negatively effect a company for at least a year or two. So the old owners are long gone before the disaster they created becomes reality.
Bottom line: when you see your company slashing R & D, lookout, they are probably getting ready to sell.
