Megacoperations - Their Scale and Future

Yet another discussion post that I wanted to keep writing about but not annoy my fellow students by getting wildly off topic. “One thing that I’ve thought about recently (this program exposes us to the global reach/scale of the companies that we’re already familiar with) is wondering just how big these mega corporations will get. We live in such an unprecedented time in global scale/business, each company is constantly looking for more improvements and gains, seamingly the only thing keeping them from gobbling up everything is government regulations. Your company choices reminded me of CVS’s attempt to buy Aetna for $69 billion. The only thing standing in their way is potential antitrust regulations. The chapters we read for this week have talked about how we have an interest in continuing OUR big companies, but don’t want other countries to get a foothold, but what if that stands to change? The sense of unity (think of the EU and their economic block) in our globally connected world. We’ve got companies operating on an unimaginable scale with the regulations “guarding them” years behind them. It might be dystopian of me to imagine a future where there’s a “fast food company” a “pharmacy company” and these things are so monolithic they can’t be competed against is looking more and more realistic. This kind of future may not be as close as we think (or it may never happen) but it’s certainly something to keep in mind as we see these gigantic companies (in this case pharmacy companies) keep expanding and growing every year.” (Original Post) As a counter argument, there’s the problem with scale. One reason I’ve usually been in favour of States when it comes to States/Federal Government's rights is the problem of efficiency. Especially when it comes to government programs (where making profits is not a focus) is that waste piles up and there’s very few reasons to “trim the fat” and make things more efficient. Naturally these gigantic companies will be segmented. The marketing team for Asia will be wildly different than North America. They may have different products and goals. So while they may be part of the same company, they can operate as their own sub company. So while “Food company” may be a dystopian vision of the future that’s wildly inaccurate, as competition is very likely to continue, having most companies under the same “umbrella” isn’t. When I was growing up, when I thought about car companies, I thought each one of them was their own company, Ford makes Ford cars, Volkswagen makes Volkswagen, ect. But the interesting thing is how often these car BRANDS are owned by just a few main car companies. I’ve loved watching Top Gear (and now The Grand Tour) (not because I’m a car person but because it’s an entertaining/well made show) and it’s been interesting to see over the years how ownerships of certain brands and companies have changed. Who makes who is less important as to what badge is shown. This “artificial competition” is interesting and makes me think about glasses and the whole “Luxottica owns 80% of the market.” The competition between brands is often just marketing geared towards different sectors of the market. It gives the same illusion of choice that either way is going to the same company (though you could argue that a good company supplies the needs of a wide variety of consumers.) Anyway, I’ve gotten a little rambly but regardless, it’s fascinating to see these megacompanies gobble each other up. Sure dystopian visions of “the food company” where just one company owns everything forever till the end of time are unrealistic, it’s not crazy to envision a few of these mega companies playing dominate roles all across the world. I’d recommend just looking at Forbes largest companies list and see a lot of companies that you interact with on a daily basis and just how freakin huge some of them are. Another fun resource is “Company man,” a youtube channel that looks at the scope and scale of a lot of well known companies. Being in the program I’m in (though it's FAR from perfect) has certainly exposed me to the scale and widespread reach of these companies and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them as they continue to sprawl and expand. References - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/business/dealbook/cvs-is-said-to-agree-to-buy-aetna-reshaping-health-care-industry.html https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/car-breakdown-car-conglomerates/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-luxottica-own-80-of-the-eyeglass-industry/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-competition