Work Experience

[KenBob]

A statement by Kerim in his introduction of himself made me think of another discussion topic. He stated that conflict of interest prevents him from investing in several good stocks.

As a facilities engineer, I don't have to worry about conflict of interest; however, my work experience does give a good view of company work practices. While it would be unwise in a public forum to make negative statements of companies with which I have worked, I can make positive statements.

In particular, I am very impressed with PG and INTC work practices. This experience makes me very confident in the future of INTC, even though many are worried about this company.

[Kerim]

Very interesting, KenBob. Can you elaborate? Do you mean that you got a firsthand impression that the folks at INTC are smart and diligent? It sounds like the sort of insight that Peter Lynch says to rely on.

[KenBob]

I really don't mean smart and diligent, although they were those things. Individually smart and diligent workers are very common in my experience.

I really mean that the management culture is good. The management culture is not based on the whims of individual managers, bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake, or assignment of blame to the least powerful. The bureaucratic processes are focused on the work results through defining work processes. For example, PG has a work process where a failure must be examined five levels deep to find the root cause of a failure.

It is amazing to me how many companies don't even look at their work processes. This is obviously a pet peeve of mine, but I find is very refreshing to find a company that is well managed and it does affect my investment decisions.