Monday, April 18, 2016

Colt: Managed by Imbeciles

Sumdood did a side-by-side comparison of a Colt Python and a Smith 686, which had this line in it about the Python:
"I can’t imagine a world where the gun isn’t in production, and where a solid working gun becomes a collector’s item."
Yeah, well, the material for a doctoral dissertation (or six) in management ineptitude awaits somebody who can mine the Colt corporate archives for the last quarter of the 20th Century.

Oh, sure, you'll find lots of anti-unionists who blame the unions for Colt's decline. My experience has been that when management-labor relations are toxic, you can almost always trace that back to management. I'll bet that was true at Colt.

To say that Colt has almost a singular inability when it comes to innovation is like saying that it snows in Hartford, CT during the winter. But I've ranted about that before.

5 comments:

  1. You may be right. I've noticed that when a product fails, it is almost always the fault over the overly powerful employees. You know, the ones who make final decisions on design, innovation, marketing, etc. It is never the fault of top management. Funny, how that works.

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  2. And the state of Connecticut having partial ownership doesn't help...

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  3. In the '80s the gun mags would have a Colt month and a S@W month and they alternated with the odd Taurus or whatever a couple times a year .
    The Colt feature would invariable start out " I received my Python on Tuesday and sent it to the custom shop . 6 months later I'm ecstatic .

    Glenn

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  4. "... for the last quarter of the 20th Century." You could go a ways further back. They lost money during WW2. How is that even possible?

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  5. Will, the Brewster Aircraft Co. of Buffalo beat that record: they went bankrupt selling airplanes to the US Gubmint during that war.

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