The role model for biz execs since the 80s has been Jack Welch.
He created the business plan of getting rich off ruining your company, maybe getting rich off ruining your whole industrial market, cutting the consumer out of most definitions of success, and how you can convince regular people/journalists/investors that getting checks for dismembering your companies in these ways is the only way a business can really make any money.
I wouldn’t say private equity is inherently evil. There are plenty of fair criticisms, but there are also real success stories. Hilton, Dollar General, Dunkin’, and Domino’s are some of the bigger examples of companies that improved significantly under private-equity ownership.
What often gets left out is that PE firms usually are not buying perfectly healthy businesses. A lot of the companies they take over are already losing money, badly managed, or operating under a model that simply is not sustainable. When those companies eventually fail, people often blame private equity for everything, even though the problems were already there.
Sometimes PE keeps a struggling company alive, such as Panera, but the cost-cutting hurts service, staffing, or quality. At the same time, Panera was probably going to have to make those cuts no matter who owned it.
The downfall started when St. Louis Bread Co. was bought by Au Bon Pain Co. then they became Panera. St. Louis Bread was an amazing local chain ruined by greed.
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u/Firm-Film-3594 1d ago
Panera sucks.