Anecdotally, this comment resonates. It feels like a perpetual game of "how badly can we abuse people for profit." How long can we sell it before the cancer class actions start? How terrible can food be if we make it cheap enough? How expensive can we make mediocre food when we own all the options? If we abuse employees and customers simultaneously could we make even more? How long can we coast on the trust built by our old quality? It's amazing how many places feel like their premium offerings are what we used to get with the standard price. Want to be treated like a person? Are you a gold member?

Why would you guess MBAs, and not the thousands of technologists devoting their career to adtech, pricing optimization, A/B testing, data science, etc?

"Those damn MBAs" is a lazy scapegoat.

Yes, because programmers etc just love to build tools that squeeze every last nickel out of people by using dark patterns etc. It's the suits that are always pushing pricing efficiency in my experience, not the nerds.

I would disagree. A business-oriented exec may have a general idea such as "optimize pricing" but the "nerds" (your term) will chime in with "let's employ a neural network-based ML training loop" that they clearly have been eagerly hoping to try out.

Doesn't matter anyway. If you've chosen big-corp adtech, datasci, analytics, optimization, etc for a career, not "loving" it is not an excuse.

It's a shorthand for the type of business idea that has no goal other than short-term optimization. Certainly people without an MBA can do this as well, but the MBA is the archetype of "if it makes money soon, we should do it".

> no goal other than short-term optimization.

Tickets to sports, concerts, Disney and other big-name attractions have been increasingly steadily, outpacing inflation, for at least the past 25 years. You've really missed the boat if you think this is in any way, "short-term".

One guy becomes the exec, decides to up the prices a bit, gets promoted. Next come in, decides to up the prices a bit, gets promoted...

There's no reason it isn't just an interminable series of short term steps.

This comment is "grasping at straws" of the highest order. At least make a compelling argument grounded in reality.

Bob Iger was Disney CEO for 15 years, during which he bought Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, opened parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and set the stage for Disney+. The company's valuation increased better than 5x.

Michael Rapino ran Live Nation and merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, becoming CEO of the new Live Nation Entertainment, and depending on your choice of start date, has 5x to 10x'ed the company's valuation. It has bought multiple event management companies, created artist management divisions, and owns and operate concert venues across the U.S. and internationally.

Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for about $140 million. Now, it is the most valuable NFL franchise, at about $5.5 billion -- a 40x increase. He built AT&T Stadium, moved the team HQ and practice facility to become the centerpiece of a massive real-estate development "The Star," and has been a pioneer and leader among NFL owners in boosting revenues from television contracts and other external sources.

These are not "short-term steps."