INSEAD - Business Foundations Programme

INSEAD's Business Foundations Programme is great. The professors are excellent and the lectures and homework definitely helped me refresh some things I learned a long time ago. Perhaps the best part is meeting my classmates and getting acquainted with the campus. My 5 dinner companions were from Spain, Thailand, France, Lebanon, and Italy. Being from the US myself, that makes 6 nationalities from 6 people. Come to think of it, some people have dual nationalities, so that's more than 6 nationalities from just 6 people. It's amazing how differently people think about the same issues. We discussed things from social responsibility and non-profit organizations to logarithms and cultures. Enlightening indeed.

One interesting thing we learned in class today: if you look at the top European companies ranked by number of employees or ranked by sales revenue, Germany dominates the top 15 or so. Ranked by market capitalization however, Germany is nowhere to be found. Why does Germany have such a hard time maximizing shareholder value when by size (employees) and sales they are the top? Could it be possible for a company to produce a product so good that it leads to it's own destruction? Did Concord suffer this fate?