24 July
Worship of High Profit Margins
High profit margin holds an umbrella over the competitor.
Most businesspeople are aware that profit is not the same as profit margin. Profit is profit margin multiplied by the turnover of capital. Maximum profitability and maximum profit flow are thus obtained by the profit margin that produces the optimum market standing and with it the optimum turnover of capital.
Why is the worship of high profit margin likely to damage—if not destroy—the business? It not only holds an umbrella over the competitor; it also makes competing practically risk-free and virtually guarantees that the competitor will take over the market. Xerox invented the copier, and in all of business history very few products have been as successful as the Xerox copy machine. But then Xerox began to chase profit margin. It put more and more gimmicks on the machine, each developed primarily to increase the profit margin. But each of these new accessories also increased the price of the machine, and what was probably even more important, each made it more difficult to service the machine. And the great majority of users didn’t need these additional features. And so a Japanese company, Canon, developed what was not much more than a replica of the original Xerox machine. The Canon model was simple and cheap, and easy to service, and it captured the U.S. market in less than one year.
7月24日
对高利润率的崇拜
高利润率会为竞争对手撑起一把保护伞。
大多数企业人士都明白，利润并不等同于利润率。利润等于利润率乘以资本周转率。因此，能够带来最优市场地位，并由此带来最优资本周转率的利润率，才会实现最大的盈利能力和最大的利润流量。
为什么对高利润率的崇拜很可能损害企业，甚至摧毁企业？因为它不仅会为竞争对手撑起一把保护伞，还会使竞争实际上变得几乎毫无风险，并且几乎可以保证竞争者最终夺走市场。施乐发明了复印机。在整个商业史上，很少有产品像施乐复印机那样成功。然而，施乐后来开始追逐利润率，在机器上不断增加各种花哨功能，而每项功能的开发主要都是为了提高利润率。但这些新配件同时也提高了机器的价格，而且可能更重要的是，它们使机器的维护变得更加困难。绝大多数用户其实并不需要这些附加功能。于是，日本佳能公司开发出一种与施乐最初机型几乎相同的产品。佳能的机型简单、便宜，而且易于维护，并在不到一年内占领了美国市场。
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