![]() ![]() But from the accompanying chart based on the Compustat data, we can examine the evidence of what more than a decade of exuberant IT spending has delivered. When corporations proposed investments in IT, reductions in transaction costs always showed up in projections of "tangible" gains. In effect, corporations were placing larger bets on the prospective payoffs from computers than on investments in any other means of production. I focused on recent trends in corporate costs while companies were installing computers at a rate that was growing more than three times as fast as spending on all other business equipment. I used the latest compilation of year 2000 annual reports by Compustat to examine financial results. So the tail-to-tooth ratio should be declining.Īs I've said before, those claims are myths. In short, the biggest benefits are lower transaction costs. Computerization, they claim, accelerates communication, simplifies workflow, automates clerical tasks, delivers improved intelligence, eliminates redundancies and helps integrate diverse activities. But IT executives should care greatly, because consultants, IT vendors and most government economists have long assumed that the more IT you have, the lower the transaction costs. Customers don't care how much a corporation spends on accountants, personnel administration, advertising, lawyers, computers or executives. What's embedded in the cost of goods sold is what customers recognize as the value they receive. It can give you a good idea how much overhead (which economists define as "transaction costs") is necessary to support the delivery of a dollar's worth of goods and services. The corporate tail-to-tooth ratio, which I have been watching for more than 20 years, is defined as the cost of sales, general and administrative expenses to the cost of goods sold. Tail is everything else, such as support staffs and the Pentagon-based command. It defines teeth as whatever delivers combat power. The common language the animals speak is Vyeshal.The "tail-to-tooth" ratio is a favorite measure of the Marine Corps. Only one faction will rise to top and those who fall will become food. While the revolution unfolds the world is set to change alliances are forged and broken, leaders born, ideals twisted, and new mysteries revealed. ![]() The KSR, commanded by the Quartermaster, fight to maintain order no matter the cost, and finally The Civilized, commanded by Missionary Archimedes, who hope to continue their rule and maintain the status quo. The Commonfolk, championed by Hopper, believe that every animal should have the right to vote for who becomes food. The Longcoats, led by Bellafide, believe that food-selection should be chosen based on an animal’s merit. Outraged by the perceived injustice of his sons passing he begins the events that would change the world.Īs tensions reach their breaking point, four factions fight to install their system of governing and their own ideas about who should end up as food. This suspicion and general malcontent came to a head at the beginning of the game, where a rich mouse named Bellafide finds his son on the menu. ![]() Years had passed and the lottery continued but many began to suspect that the civilized were choosing "winners" not allowing for the fairness of chance. Forced to enact the longstanding pact, the civilized, the governing body of the world, began organizing and overseeing the lottery. ![]() For many years there had been an agreement between all animals, should the world fall upon hard times a lottery would be enacted to choose who among them would be sacrificed as meat.Īll was well until hard times befell the animals. The animals have taken to eating meat, with the only exception being Pigs who are treated as a subspecies (and primary food source) due to their vegetarian diet and perceived dim wit. Tooth and Tail is set in a world ruled by animals, and takes place in a time of violent revolution. ![]()
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