Notes

1. Robert G. Docters, et al., Winning the Profit Game, McGraw-Hill, 2004, pp. 84–85.

2. Another example of premia for unique value is in women’s fashions, where “me-too-ness …, has plagued retail for years,” according to Robert Drbul, an analyst for Barclays Capital. (“To Stand Out, Retailers Flock to Exclusive Lines,” The New York Times, February 15, 2011).

3. Fortunately. the vast majority of U.S. management is incented to avoid mutually destructive price battles. A survey found 74 percent of companies have profit performance incentives. See “Study of Performance metrics Among S&P 500 Large Stock Companies,” James F. Reda & Associates, LLC, March 2009, p. 10. Hence the disincentives to drive prices to cost.

4. Meaning that the molten steel burned through the continuous caster, and in that case 30 tons of liquid steel sloshed through the mill. The molten steel got into the electric motors for forming the steel, and production ceased.