Shawn Mende

Hardball
So the big question, what is hardball exactly, and what does it mean? Hardball is a
business strategy or a type of willingness of the employees of the company. Some companys
play softball such as airline industry, auto industry, recording industry as a few examples which
has worked in their favor and has survived for this long. But the rules and strategies of the
business world are changing drastically; its becoming ever so increasingly fierce as companys
move forward and grow trying to stay in the fortune 100 list which now changes drastically. To
help and evolve with the business world today it takes a manifesto and strategy to stay in the
competitive world we are in today. The manifestos are as listed, you have to focus relentlessly
on competitive advantage; strive to widen the performance gap between themselves and
competitors, and are never satisfied with todays competitive advantage, they want tomorrows.
It also includes exploitation of peoples will to win and knowing the caution zone, meaning
where is the line that you dont cross but at the same time walking that line on a daily basis.
Here are the strategies, devastate rivals profit sanctuaries, plagiarize with pride, deceive the
competition, unleash massive and overwhelming force, and raise competitors costs. This is the
manifesto and strategies of hardball, not exactly moral or ethical but in war many things fall by
the wayside for the possibilities to gain a better position for your company. Thus is how the
business world is running according to the strategies of hard ball.

In the film Glengarry Glen Ross, I would say regardless of how mean it was for what
happened to the sales men it would be to my imagination be a very good example of hardball
and what it does and can do to people, positively and negatively. On the negative side, they all
mostly hate this guy because of his lack of respect to them and foul language directed at them,
it also scares them and shakes them up. But on the positive side it made them more aware of
the reality of whats going on around them, one of them will lose their job. So to protect
themselves and their job security they now understand the lengths that they will have to go to
in order to keep their jobs. The person is exploiting their will to win with fear which is why its
such a great example of hardball. With this film comes some fallacies as well, mostly ad
baculum for how much he is forcing them and threatening them with their jobs if they dont
start to sell. Although I personally wouldnt condone to this type of behavior it really is a perfect
example of hardball of how tense and serious companies can be and are willing to go to such
extremes to motivate their employees.
Now in the next movie we saw greed is good there was a little different side of things, a
speech was given that wasnt very forceful but persuading on the subject of greed and what it
does for us as a society. In this film we have Gekko leading the stock holders against the
company president and 33 vice presidents, explaining to the stock holders that the company is
going under and that the think tank for the company is bringing it there because they all simply
dont care. He continues to explain that all of the vice presidents together, all 33 of them
together own less than 3% and the owner and president himself own less than 1%. The stock
and company is completely owned by the people, investors, and most importantly the stock
holders. Gekko goes further to try to explain the purpose of all the vice presidents the company
has which he simply cannot. He then goes on to his speech greed is right, greed works. Greed
clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the revolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its
forms-greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.
With and up-roar of applause from the stock holders they go and further turn down the request
of the company that proposed some bad ideas by men and women who didnt really care about
the company to begin with. So now youre probably wondering how this pertains to hardball,
well its another really good example when you play hardball in the business world like Gekko
did, it is not as extreme as the previous example but still a really good example. Gecko in his
speech knows how to attack indirectly at his opponents who in this case are the vice presidents
of the company and the owner; he also exploits the stock holders willingness to win by making
references to the value of the stock and what will happen if the change is made to the
company. There are fallacies in his speech as well though such as bifurcation and ad hominem.
As to support the above about the truth and statement about greed, a PBS new article
titled Understanding greed and in this article they explain and help understand about the
movie clip above and explain a bit in more detail. Newsman Paul Solman speaks with Irven
Devore, an evolutionary biologist along with a few other key reputable people. They begin to
explain about Christmas and corporate competition when Irven explains that all species have
competition of some kind of another and for us one of the major portions for us is wealth
because wealth can open many doors for us in our life time so we all do what we can to acquire
as much of it as we can. Irven further explains that at the fundamental level, humans are self-
interested and if they are not they tend to not leave any offspring. So genes that would lead to
not being self-interested tend not to be passed along for the most part. Paul also interviews
Terry Burnham, an economist, Paul asks about moneys failure to buy happiness and terry
responds with the correlation between the current situation in todays world. Greed is the
amassing of things, and in this topic it would be wealth, in the history of mankind we are
currently all richer than we used to be in the past. Including thats depression is as well, the
amassing of wealth does not increase happiness what so ever, it is actually documented that
the percentage of people that are clinically depressed is at a world high right now. The current
formula is to buy things and be happy, get bored eventually become depressed and buy more
things. It is a very unfortunate solution to the problem is to simply always want more things. Its
an unfortunate cycle that keeps happening and should be broken. Paul also speaks to a minister
at Harvard memorial Church, Peter Gomes. Peter goes on and says that greed is good but the
better saying is that it is good to give; it is perfectly possible to admire the system that has
enriched the world and economy. To admire greed on one hand but urge it to find ways that it
can be equitably shared by the rest of the culture for the simple sake of culture, for the rich and
the poor alike. In doing so the giver is blessed and the person who receives is blessed as well. So
in conclusion to understanding what greed is, greed is in the simplest forms of amassing a lot,
whether it is friends, love, money, cars, objects, and so forth. Greed is good when controlled
and understood properly so that it doesnt turn into some sort of hoarding disorder which does
happen a lot. I believe that with the right intentions, greed can be a wonderful thing in this
world.
In conclusion to hard ball and greed in the business world, it is tough and not easy to
make it. To be a successful businessman you have to be greedy and driven to further your own
goals and dreams. To do that and to follow the rules of hardball makes it that much harder
because of the fact that you are going so far and doing so much it often times borderlines of
what war is. Which if you follow the hardball way, I would think it would be safe to say that
business is war for what companies do and how they compete with all of their competitors.
Hardball is the current teaching and strategy and greed is the driving factor, it gives us the want
of more and to grow. It gives us the drive we seek to acquire our gain that we want or need. In
the current of todays business world, Hardball is the way and greed is the will that can get us
there.