Niki Lauda Quotes
Airlines go in the long run at the competition to reason. For the passenger the competition is good, because each competitor tries to undercut the other one.
He was the judge who presided over the breakup of AT&T in 1984
Patents, copyrights, and franchises are but 3 common (and legal) ways of obtaining a onopoly position.See Adam Smith {627790} for a similar thought.
This is an important quotation because Ellison, one of the best businessmen in the world is also much more candid than most others. Here he admits that he strives to achieve monopoly status for his company. Almost all large businesses try to become monopolies so that they do not have to compete on price, quality, and service. Few will admit publicly that much of their effort goes towards an objective that is detrimental to the nation and society and in is in large part illegal.
When Bulgaria transformed from a Communist nation to a free market, competitive economy, most of the Bulgarian businessmen assumed that the competition was to get a favored position with the government and have the government then interfere with their competitors or some other government organized advantage for them as opposed to better products, better prices, better marketing. Ironically, there are still a few areas where the modern American system is much like Bulgaria was. Local telephone and electric monopolies are two of the worst.
[These new "extra fees" for baggage, schedule changes, getting a good seat, etc are a new in the industry where most of the few airlines would rather match the fares and fees of the rest, rather than compete and get a larger market share. Interestingly, the best run and most profitable airline, Southwest, does not charge most of these new fees. Also, the airlines business has over the years not been very profitable. The nature of the industry makes it difficult for most airlines to make steady profits year after year, so many tend to be hogs and take advantage of consumers whenever they had the opportunity.]
Andreas Nikolaus Lauda was an Austrian Formula One driver and aviation entrepreneur. He was a three-time F1 World Drivers' Champion, winning in 1975, 1977 and 1984, and is the only driver in F1 history to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, the sport's two most successful constructors.
