It's sad and stunning to see what happened to this great American enterprise in the 21st century. The best part of the book was written in the 20th century, before greed, arrogance, incompetence, and fl-tulence impaled the company, delivering mortal wounds to this proud Mother Mining.
If I had to compare the company to a ship, it wouldn't be the titanic because that sank in a heartbeat. Rather, I'd compare it to a 17th century poorly maintained treasure ship coasting through the west indies, loaded with treasure, including rum, doubloons, spices, tropical fruit, etc.
The ship was once strong and sturdy and manned and captained by the very best. But then Captain Bligh (Mcnerney) took over and focused only on the short term pleasures of his fortune. Maintenance was neglected and people rebelled against his (Jack) Welchian autocratic style. He had intended to promote first mate B. Sauer, but alas another company (boeing) offered him more doubloons than he could get on ship now dilapidated vessel. He was also know at throwing other people's cargo (employees) overboard to cut costs.
The crew was temporarily given reprieve under Sir George which made it feel like being in port in a tropical paradise compared to taskmaster bligh, only to be assigned to a glamorous talking Captain Ahab (Inge) who proceeded to add debt to beautify the ship (buying back shares at 150 to 200 dollars) but neglected Maintenance as well. The ship started to show signs of floundering.
Finally, Ahab/Inge took the last good lifeboat and settled in Key West whilst he appointed Skipper and Gilligan (M&M) boys and lackey (tireman). The Twitty th------e decided to make merry with other shipmates spoils (paying themselves bonuses whilst giving the crew more losses in their GESPP). Finally they listened to some people from NYC and set a course directly into a category 5 hurricane. The headwinds (those darn economic conditions) forced the Twitty th------e to begin saving the ship (themselves, actually) by throwing overboard the precious cargo (businesses) and crew (MTEs, Salesforce, etc.) That could have saved them.
The Twitty th------e some how made it to shore on an island full of parrots (people who clap at townhalls) repeating every thing they said. And the three lived happily ever after on the spoils and toils of others.
There was a fourth future Captain who got left in Port after spending too much time looking for a good massage.
Cheer to all. This shipwreck will finally be sunk soon enough.