No one has any doubt that Greece will not live up to its commitments to carry out the necessary reforms. Will believers do the works that Jesus did? The Mystery of Stolen Energy

The summer of 1904 in Toulon turned out to be hot and stuffy. Four military school cadets considered it a great blessing to move to the cool barracks of the 4th Marine Regiment in the town of Morillon, where they would live during field exercises. The exercises turned out to be not too exhausting, requiring a midday rest, after which the young people were left to their own devices.

BOAUDLER'S GOLDEN CHRONOMETER

This leisure time, when it was forbidden to leave the barracks, gave rise to the problems that accompany lazy idleness. As a result, the future officers, not even having books or chess to occupy themselves with anything, plunged into, as they called their newfangled hobby, the grave sins of table-turning, that is, into spiritualistic seances. And, I must admit, the first such experience amazed them. The round oak table around which they sat, on the top of which they placed their palms, immediately, tilting in different directions, began to slowly rotate and emit loud, ear-drum-cutting clicks.

Since the room was brightly illuminated by several gas jets at once, there was no need to talk about external playful influences on the table of any of the four. The leader of the four, twenty-year-old de la Fontaine, proposed translating combinations of clicks into letters of the alphabet.

Friends asking questions out loud instantly converted clicks into answers. They asked their first questions first, as they put it, in an abstract spirit. This is how they found out what was in whose pockets. And with a more difficult task - reading notes in closed notebooks - the invisible man coped brilliantly. De la Fontaine asked who the invisible man was during his lifetime. The spirit replied: “I am Baudelaire, the author of your favorite book, The Flowers of Evil.” Friends, refusing to believe in such an amazing contact, demanded physical evidence.

A pocket chronometer appeared from the void, smoothly falling onto de la Fontaine’s palm. The chronometer showed the time accurately.

The inscription "Charles Baudelaire" was engraved on the inside of its gold lid.

Until the morning, friends heatedly discussed the events of the evening, only to read in the newspaper the next day about the mysterious disappearance of a memorabilia from the locked secretary of Guillaume, the nephew of the famous poet Baudelaire, who wanted to immediately, without publicity, buy the thing from anyone who presented it. Of course, Guillaume, in order to prove ownership, intended to compare the numbered engraving of the item with the numbered engraving of the bearer's item. The friends decided to visit the poet’s nephew immediately after the end of the training.

THE POET THANKS AND PROMISES

To begin with, without even unpacking their suitcases, the officers left the old mansion on the Parisian Street of the Republic and, having covered a short distance to the house on the same street where the poet’s nephew lived, appeared before him. After greeting him and offering him some tea, Monsieur Guillaume said that he couldn’t wait to look at the chronometer and check the number engraving.

Friends, having handed over a watch (to buy a watch), began to observe the reaction. The reaction was close to fainting, which is what happened when Monsieur Guillaume learned how the chronometer ended up in the barracks, dozens of leagues from the capital. They gave de la Fontaine an empty case from under the disappeared chronometer, on the gilded backing of which the numbers 56478 were engraved. The poet's nephew inquired whether they coincided with the numbers on the cover. Hearing the answer, Monsieur Guillaume, like a true Frenchman, although not rich, but noble, called the cook and ordered dinner for the evening entirely of exquisite dishes and wines. The feast, cheerful, full of jokes and chatter, ended with the rather tipsy owner inviting the guests over coffee and cake to try to evoke the restless soul of their uncle, who during his lifetime, as we know, was by no means a moralist.

The proposal was accepted. The round card table, in the light of a dozen fairly burning candles, behaved like a maddened stallion. Jumped. He escaped from the hands of the officers who tried to calm him down. When it stuck to the ceiling for a long time and firmly, familiar, distinct clicks were heard, condensed somewhere in the air above the center of the floor carpet.

De la Fontaine, without losing his composure, conveyed to Monsieur Guillaume the message of his relative. Baudelaire or the substance speaking on his behalf was stunned: “Let the nephew cast aside skepticism and believe that at the end of his bodily life a more perfect and spiritual life awaits. To keep him from doubting, I had to play tricks with the clock. I thank the young gentlemen for helping me.” The spirit further said that the spiritualistic sessions must be continued. Moreover, it is obligatory with the participation of the nephew, because words of prophetic truth await everyone, without exception.

VISIBLE WORLDS OF PROPHECIES

The mansion on the Rue de la République, in the mezzanine of which officers and Baudelaire’s nephew practiced seances, remains notorious among Parisians to this day. Not surprising. Only in the 19th and 20th centuries did twelve of its owners and guests commit suicide here.

Without dwelling on the peculiarities of the techniques typical of all spiritualistic seances, let us dwell on the details, without exaggeration, of the fateful information conveyed by the mysterious invisible person to the participants. Thus, the “spirit of Baudelaire” called upon us to gather courage and come to terms with the irreparable losses that, alas, have already taken place. The officers and Monsieur Guillaume demanded specifics. So what? The “Spirit” tapped out information about the death as a result of the treachery of Lieutenant Makorje and Sergeant Revan. It was not possible to promptly verify this information, since Makorje and Revan served in Indochina, the deployment of their units was unknown.

The participants in the seance, half jokingly and half seriously, told the invisible man to stop talking about sad things. And if he wants to make you sad, then let him do it for the last time. The Invisible Man, having extinguished the lamps and blown out the candles, informed everyone about the dates of “leaving the mortal world.” Based on the timing, it turned out that the hours of death would not come very, very soon. The officers and Monsieur Guillaume, having sent a servant for champagne, recorded the time of the allotted life on four sheets of thick paper, sealed it in four thick bags and filled the sealing wax with the personal seal of the Baudelaire family. In the morning, the packages were handed over to the notary with the condition that they be opened exactly in a hundred years. The year was 1905 then. In 2005, the packages were opened. Their contents left no doubt that the invisible man had not lied. There was no doubt that a poltergeist was hidden behind the miracles that unfolded in Morillon and Paris.

There is no doubt left that a poltergeist was lurking behind the miracles that unfolded in Morillon and Paris

In the last chapter of de la Fontaine’s book “Dialogues with the Spirit,” he writes that he learned about the tragic deaths of Sergeant Revan and Lieutenant Macorje when in Indochina, in Saigon, he met one of his friends, Lieutenant Jaco, who reported that during a raid in weapons of a sergeant and a lieutenant were found in an Aboriginal village. After “inhumane methods were used” against the leader of a tribe engaged in cannibalism, he was forced to admit that the French were simply eaten. Thus, and step by step, the prophecy of the invisible man, the one who called himself the spirit of the poet Baudelaire, was confirmed.

Neutrinos, an incredibly tiny particle in the universe, have fascinated scientists for nearly a century. More Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research on neutrinos than for work on any other particle, and huge installations are being built to study it with the budget of small states. Alexander Nozik, a senior researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a teacher at MIPT and a participant in the “Troitsk nu-mass” experiment to search for the neutrino mass, tells how to study it, but most importantly, how to catch it in the first place.

The Mystery of Stolen Energy

The history of neutrino research can be read like a fascinating detective story. This particle has tested the deductive abilities of scientists more than once: not every riddle could be solved immediately, and some have not yet been solved. Let's start with the history of the discovery. Radioactive decays of various kinds began to be studied at the end of the 19th century, and it is not surprising that in the 1920s scientists had in their arsenal not only instruments for recording the decay itself, but also for measuring the energy of escaping particles, albeit not particularly accurate by today's standards . As the accuracy of the instruments increased, so did the joy of scientists and the bewilderment associated, among other things, with beta decay, in which an electron flies out of a radioactive nucleus, and the nucleus itself changes its charge. This decay is called two-particle, since it produces two particles - a new nucleus and an electron. Any high school student will explain that it is possible to accurately determine the energy and momentum of fragments in such a decay using conservation laws and knowing the masses of these fragments. In other words, the energy of, for example, an electron will always be the same in any decay of the nucleus of a certain element. In practice, a completely different picture was observed. The electron energy not only was not fixed, but was also spread out into a continuous spectrum down to zero, which baffled scientists. This can only happen if someone steals energy from beta decay. But there seems to be no one to steal it.

Over time, the instruments became more and more accurate, and soon the possibility of attributing such an anomaly to an equipment error disappeared. Thus a mystery arose. In search of its solution, scientists have expressed various, even completely absurd by today's standards, assumptions. Niels Bohr himself, for example, made a serious statement that conservation laws do not apply in the world of elementary particles. Wolfgang Pauli saved the day in 1930. He was unable to attend the physics conference in Tübingen and, unable to participate remotely, sent a letter which he asked to be read. Here are excerpts from it:

“Dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen. I ask you to listen with attention at the most convenient moment to the messenger who delivered this letter. He will tell you that I have found an excellent remedy for the law of conservation and correct statistics. It lies in the possibility of the existence of electrically neutral particles... The continuity of the B-spectrum will become clear if we assume that during B-decay, such a “neutron” is emitted along with each electron, and the sum of the energies of the “neutron” and electron is constant...”

At the end of the letter there were the following lines:

“If you don't take risks, you won't win. The gravity of the situation when considering the continuous B-spectrum becomes especially clear after the words of Prof. Debye, who said to me with regret: “Oh, it’s better not to think of all this ... as new taxes.” Therefore, it is necessary to seriously discuss each path to salvation. So, dear radioactive people, put this to the test and judge.”

Later, Pauli himself expressed fears that, although his idea saved the physics of the microworld, the new particle would never be discovered experimentally. They say that he even argued with his colleagues that if the particle existed, it would not be possible to detect it during their lifetime. Over the next few years, Enrico Fermi developed a theory of beta decay involving a particle he called the neutrino, which agreed brilliantly with experiment. After this, no one had any doubt that the hypothetical particle actually existed. In 1956, two years before Pauli's death, neutrinos were experimentally discovered in reverse beta decay by the team of Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan (Reines received the Nobel Prize for this).

The Case of the Missing Solar Neutrinos

Once it became clear that neutrinos, although difficult, could still be detected, scientists began trying to detect neutrinos of extraterrestrial origin. Their most obvious source is the Sun. Nuclear reactions constantly occur in it, and it can be calculated that about 90 billion solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter of the earth's surface.

At that time, the most effective method of catching solar neutrinos was the radiochemical method. Its essence is this: a solar neutrino arrives on Earth, interacts with the nucleus; the result is, say, a 37Ar nucleus and an electron (this is exactly the reaction that was used in the experiment of Raymond Davis, for which he was later given the Nobel Prize). After this, by counting the number of argon atoms, we can say how many neutrinos interacted in the detector volume during the exposure. In practice, of course, everything is not so simple. You must understand that you need to count single argon atoms in a target weighing hundreds of tons. The mass ratio is approximately the same as between the mass of an ant and the mass of the Earth. It was then that it was discovered that ⅔ of solar neutrinos had been stolen (the measured flux was three times less than predicted).

Of course, suspicion first fell on the Sun itself. After all, we can judge his inner life only by indirect signs. It is not known how neutrinos are created on it, and it is even possible that all models of the Sun are wrong. Quite a lot of different hypotheses were discussed, but in the end scientists began to lean toward the idea that it was not the Sun, but the cunning nature of the neutrinos themselves.

A small historical digression: in the period between the experimental discovery of neutrinos and experiments on studying solar neutrinos, several more interesting discoveries occurred. First, antineutrinos were discovered and it was proven that neutrinos and antineutrinos participate in interactions differently. Moreover, all neutrinos in all interactions are always left-handed (the projection of the spin on the direction of motion is negative), and all antineutrinos are right-handed. Not only is this property observed among all elementary particles only in neutrinos, it also indirectly indicates that our Universe is, in principle, not symmetrical. Secondly, it was discovered that each charged lepton (electron, muon and tau lepton) has its own type, or flavor, of neutrino. Moreover, neutrinos of each type interact only with their lepton.

Let's return to our solar problem. Back in the 50s of the 20th century, it was suggested that the leptonic flavor (a type of neutrino) does not have to be conserved. That is, if an electron neutrino was born in one reaction, then on the way to another reaction the neutrino can change clothes and run as a muon. This could explain the lack of solar neutrinos in radiochemical experiments that are sensitive only to electron neutrinos. This hypothesis was brilliantly confirmed by measurements of the solar neutrino flux in the SNO and Kamiokande large water target scintillation experiments (for which another Nobel Prize was recently awarded). In these experiments, it is no longer inverse beta decay that is being studied, but the neutrino scattering reaction, which can occur not only with electron, but also with muon neutrinos. When, instead of the flux of electron neutrinos, they began to measure the total flux of all types of neutrinos, the results perfectly confirmed the transition of neutrinos from one type to another, or neutrino oscillations.

Assault on the Standard Model

The discovery of neutrino oscillations, having solved one problem, created several new ones. The point is that since the time of Pauli, neutrinos have been considered massless particles like photons, and this suited everyone. Attempts to measure the mass of neutrinos continued, but without much enthusiasm. Oscillations changed everything, since mass, however small, is required for their existence. The discovery of mass in neutrinos, of course, delighted experimenters, but puzzled theorists. First, massive neutrinos do not fit into the Standard Model of particle physics, which scientists have been building since the beginning of the 20th century. Secondly, the same mysterious left-handedness of neutrinos and right-handedness of antineutrinos is well explained only, again, for massless particles. If there is mass, left-handed neutrinos should, with some probability, transform into right-handed ones, that is, into antiparticles, violating the seemingly immutable law of conservation of the lepton number, or even turn into some kind of neutrinos that do not participate in the interaction. Today, such hypothetical particles are commonly called sterile neutrinos.

Neutrino detector "Super Kamiokande" © Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo

Of course, the experimental search for the neutrino mass immediately resumed sharply. But the question immediately arose: how to measure the mass of something that cannot be caught? There is only one answer: do not catch neutrinos at all. Today, two directions are most actively being developed - the direct search for neutrino mass in beta decay and the observation of neutrinoless double beta decay. In the first case, the idea is very simple. The nucleus decays with electron and neutrino radiation. It is not possible to catch a neutrino, but it is possible to catch and measure an electron with very high accuracy. The electron spectrum also carries information about the neutrino mass. Such an experiment is one of the most difficult in particle physics, but its undoubted advantage is that it is based on the basic principles of conservation of energy and momentum and its result depends on little. Currently, the best limit on neutrino mass is about 2 eV. This is 250 thousand times less than that of an electron. That is, the mass itself was not found, but was only limited by the upper frame.

With double beta decay, things are more complicated. If we assume that a neutrino turns into an antineutrino during a spin flip (this model is called after the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana), then a process is possible when two beta decays occur simultaneously in the nucleus, but the neutrinos do not fly out, but are reduced. The probability of such a process is related to the neutrino mass. The upper limits in such experiments are better - 0.2 – 0.4 eV - but depend on the physical model.

The problem of massive neutrinos has not yet been solved. The Higgs theory cannot explain such small masses. It requires significant complication or the use of some more cunning laws according to which neutrinos interact with the rest of the world. Physicists involved in neutrino research are often asked the question: “How can neutrino research help the average person? What financial or other benefit can be derived from this particle? Physicists shrug their shoulders. And they really don't know it. Once upon a time, the study of semiconductor diodes was purely fundamental physics, without any practical application. The difference is that the technologies that are being developed to create modern experiments in neutrino physics are widely used in industry now, so every penny invested in this area pays off fairly quickly. Currently, several experiments are being carried out in the world, the scale of which is comparable to the scale of the Large Hadron Collider; these experiments are aimed exclusively at studying the properties of neutrinos. It is unknown in which of them it will be possible to open a new page in physics, but it will definitely be opened.

Today there is virtually no doubt about who detonated the bomb in the St. Petersburg metro. The suspect has been identified. We know his name and what he may have looked like. The young man was recruited by radicals, apparently recently. Presumably, he carried both bombs into the subway. But only one device worked - at the entrance to the Technological Institute. The second one was neutralized in time. Investigators, of course, cannot reveal all the details.

A man blew up the “infernal machine” in the subway, and investigators have already established his identity. This is official, everything else is just a version. Here is one of them, which has not yet been refuted by anyone: the explosion was the work of a lone terrorist. Interfax agency sources speak about this, in particular. A man with a small bag on his shoulder enters the subway at two o'clock.

In the lobby of the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station - people who came to St. Petersburg from the Moscow station descend here - the terrorist leaves a bag with a bomb, but does not board the train. He continues on his way. In an inconspicuous bag, at first glance, there is an ordinary fire extinguisher, but inside there is a bomb with metal balls. Here the tragedy is averted. An ownerless item is noticed by a metro employee during his duty patrol.

“He secured the place in time, called specialists in time. As a result, a terrorist attack was prevented,” said Vladimir Garyugin, head of the St. Petersburg metro.

At this time, the terrorist goes to the Mayakovskaya station and gets to Gostiny Dvor. And again the transition - to the blue line, Nevsky Prospekt station. The whole journey takes no longer than 15 minutes. The next stop is the same “Sennaya Square”.

The St. Petersburg subway carries more than two million passengers per day. At the height of the working day, the metro is usually freer. But not here: the stretch from Sennaya to Tekhnolozhka is the very center of the city. There are always a lot of passengers on this section.

The expectation is that there will be many victims. The train enters a tunnel and there is an explosion. The driver Alexander Kaverin, as if he had not yet come to his senses, repeats the same phrase. The instructions he followed to the last moment were to bring the train to the next station at all costs.

“There was a bang and dust. I contacted the dispatcher and reported the situation. Incomprehensible messages began to arrive via the “passenger-driver” communication, because everyone in all the cars was talking at the same time. In this situation, I had to take the train to the station, which I did,” he says.

The shock of the first seconds gives way to horror when the train finally leaves the dark tunnel onto the illuminated platform. There is a crush in the fourth car. The twisted doors are jammed, and passengers trapped inside are trying in vain to open them. Someone is pushing out the glass of the emergency exits. People climb over, jump out, crawl away, and run away from the carriage without looking back.

“It’s very good that the train did not stop and was flying at speed. I thought - just to get there. We arrived, it was impossible to get out through the door, and we crawled through the openings that were broken. Then, when I turned around, there were a huge number of people lying there,” says Natalya Kirillova.

Those remaining inside are unable to rise. In the chaos of what is happening, nothing can be discerned except cries of despair and pleas for help.

Those who came to the aid of the wounded see a terrible picture of a carriage destroyed by an explosion, in which many could no longer be saved.

“I was there too, I pulled it out. This cannot be conveyed - the woman was covered in blood, I pulled her out; the guy was screaming loudly, covered in blood, kicking this door,” says Rimma Boyko.

Rescuers arrive at the scene seven minutes later. They were on their way to a smoke call. What we saw on the spot is still before our eyes.

The wounded and dead are carried to the platform, lifted up, and from there to hospitals by helicopters and ambulances. Two people die on the way. Severe injuries from the shock wave and flame, but worst of all - shrapnel. Doctors spent the entire night removing metal peas from the bodies of the victims. Large, like hail, they pierced right through and left no chance for those who stood very close.

“A metal ball, and an explosive device was stuffed with them, there were hundreds of them, it looked like metal, it was obviously homemade, the diameter was about 8 millimeters. In addition, there were self-tapping screws and metal fragments,” said the director of the Emergency Medicine Research Institute. I. Dzhanelidze Valery Parfenov.

The characteristic destructive elements, as well as the fact that the DNA of the same person was found both in the carriage and on a bag with a bomb left in the lobby - all this, according to a TASS agency source, suggests that the explosion was committed by a suicide bomber .

“Judging by the nature of the injuries, it was a suicide bomber. The explosive device was attached to his body, or was in his backpack, or he even held it in his hands, but at the level of his stomach. This is evidenced by the fact that everyone who was nearby had characteristic injuries in the abdominal area,” a source told TASS.

Little is known about the identity of the perpetrator. Photos of several suspects appeared in the press. Moreover, one of them even came to the police himself and gave an explanation. As a result, a 22-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan is now being tested for involvement in the terrorist attack. The National Security Committee of this country has already interrogated his relatives. According to some reports, the suspect had Russian citizenship, he worked in one of the sushi bars in the Northern capital, and then suddenly disappeared.

Sources from the Kommersant newspaper talk about this man’s connections with the ISIS group.

“The special services knew about the preparation of the action in St. Petersburg, but their information was far from complete. It was provided by a Russian who collaborated with the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in our country and was detained after returning from Syria. This person, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor, occupied the lowest level in the hierarchy of militants, so he knew some of the members of the sabotage group sent to Russia. At the same time, even with his contactees, he only maintained telephone contact. Having thus determined the mobile numbers of the alleged terrorists and pierced them, the operatives found out that all the SIM cards were purchased in the markets and were not tied to real people, so they were forced to limit themselves to wiretapping the militants’ conversations, hoping to eventually find them themselves or at least find out their details plans,” the article says.

The first details of the investigation were reported to Vladimir Putin the night before at a closed meeting at the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg. After a meeting with representatives of security forces, the president laid flowers at a spontaneous memorial near the Tekhnologichesky Institute metro station.

The metro itself resumed operation as usual today. But towards the middle of the day, seven stations on the blue line of the St. Petersburg subway were closed.

Meanwhile, what happened continues to acquire more and more new details. The power of the explosive device is being determined. The first figure - 300 grams of TNT - can be tripled. And it is not yet clear whether the terrorist himself detonated the bomb or whether someone remotely helped him explode.

So that you are left in no doubt that setting the right goals is important, let's remember the story of Rick Wagoner. When he took the helm of General Motors in 2000, he was faced with a truly difficult choice. GM's U.S. market share, which traditionally measures success in the auto industry, has been shrinking for several years under pressure from aggressive rivals such as Toyota and Honda. Cash flows and operating profits were declining, and numerous of the auto giant's factories were operating at partial capacity. One careless move and Wagoner risked going down in history as the CEO under which GM lost its title as the world's largest car manufacturer. Everyone understood that Wagoner needed to do something to bring the company out of the crisis. But what? Since market share in the United States is one of the main measures of success in the auto business, Wagoner set a bold goal: stop the loss of market share and then reverse the trend. GM will fight its way from 25% to its previous 30% market share. Dejected employees and shareholders of the company took heart and applauded these announcements, although they were not entirely sure how this goal would be achieved. As one might expect, reality interfered with the great plans. In 2001, GM's market share declined again, as did cash flows and operating profits. The same thing happened the next year. And the next one. By 2005, GM was facing serious difficulties: in the first nine months of the year, the company's sales in the North American market fell by $5 billion, despite desperate attempts to support sales with huge discounts and refunds of overpayments. That same year, the once unimaginable happened: GM bonds received high-yield status. People in the know began to talk seriously about the possibility of GM going bankrupt in order to avoid fulfilling onerous obligations under labor contracts and pension payments. Wagoner's bold plan turned into a fight for survival. What was wrong? Having chosen the main goal of returning past gains in the form of 30% of the total market share, Wagoner showed over-optimism. Indeed, taking a closer look at GM and its main rivals, Toyota and Honda, it became clear that achieving such a goal would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Toyota and Honda had a number of important competitive advantages. Both Japanese companies are masters of short cycles, that is, they are able to develop and launch new models much faster than GM, reflecting the latest advances in automotive design and technology. As a result, Toyota and Honda are constantly entering the market with new offerings that are relevant to consumers. Additionally, based on the total number of models on the global market, both companies have far fewer of them than GM, so they spread the cost of upgrading any given model over a larger number of units sold. Given Japan's legendary quality and ability to give consumers exactly what they want, both companies earn high profits on most of their models. Finally, Toyota and Honda do not have the burdensome legacy of huge health insurance and retirement benefits costs. GM offers more than 70 models in the U.S. market, but because many of them lack the technical sophistication and consumer appeal of Toyota and Honda's offerings, GM vehicles are often sold with deep discounts or rebates that eat into the company's profits and tarnish the brand's image. To regain lost market share, GM needed to make most of its 70 models competitive, a task that required vast sums of money and an army of talented managers, engineers, and production workers. Deep model redesigns cost billions of dollars, so existing cash flows and operating profits did not allow GM to update all of its models with adequate frequency. In other words, Wagoner set a goal that his company simply did not have enough money to achieve. But Toyota and Honda had no shortage of money or engineering talent to constantly update their cars with the latest technology and design. When soaring fuel prices in 2005 hit sales of GM's most profitable trucks and SUVs, it became clear that GM would not beat Toyota and Honda in this hand-to-hand battle. But what if Wagoner had set a different goal for the company, or even a different set of goals? For example, he may well have chosen the auto giant's survival as a goal, prioritizing increasing cash flows and operating profits. To do this, it would have to abandon some product lines that are known to be unprofitable in a highly competitive market (and accept a further decline in GM's overall market share). As a result, it would be able to invest a critical amount of resources - money and talent - into working on a small number of promising models that could increase market share in their segments, as well as generate profits and cash flow. I happened to attend a CEO meeting shortly after Wagoner made his bold announcement. Neither understood why Wagoner chose market share over profits and cash flow from operations. Now GM's overall market share in the United States continues to decline: in the five years that Wagoner has led GM, the company has lost almost two points. You need to think through in detail what is required to achieve the chosen goals, and based on this, evaluate their feasibility. When you set goals for the lower levels of the organization, you need to anticipate what decisions they will entail and what difficulties ordinary employees will face. By issuing "do this or do that" orders, you can authorize the systematic destruction of a perfectly running business. The head of a $1 billion unit consistently met her goals. After congratulating her on her excellent performance over the past year, her boss stunned her with the news that he wanted her to deliver at least 10% year-on-year revenue growth next year. The manager knew she could accomplish this task at great risk to the future of her division, which was under extreme financial and competitive pressure. Raw material prices rose faster than forecast. Energy costs alone have increased by almost 30% since the beginning of last year. Fluctuating exchange rates weakened demand in Europe, and due to fierce competition, prices had to be constantly reduced to maintain market share. China opened up wonderful opportunities for the company, and now the time had come to strengthen its position there: the manager planned to make the necessary investments as early as next year. She believed that the opportunity to gain a foothold in China was the key to the survival of her business, and had already identified an ideal technology company for acquisition, worth approximately $10 million. But according to accounting standards, this amount could not be capitalized, but had to be attributed to period expenses, which made it virtually impossible achieve the revenue growth figure her boss demanded. She explained the situation to him, emphasizing the importance of entering China now and the ideal opportunity she had found. She understood that her competitors were thinking the same way and were also looking for ways to take root in China. If it does not ensure its presence in this country by the end of next year, another such chance may not present itself very soon. Earning 10% more revenue and doing a deal in China at the same time was impossible: it would be like achieving 20% ​​year-over-year revenue growth. The boss only pretended to be concerned about her problems. He'd been at the helm of the company for years, and it had posted 24 straight quarters of double-digit earnings per share growth, and he had no intention of stopping that fine run of achievements. So he said she had to find a way to do both, reminding her that everyone in the company had problems and that people were paid to solve them. None of the opportunities to earn an extra 20% return (including investing in China) made business sense. Of course, it would be possible to abandon one of the three products in development. But the marketing team saw great prospects for all three, and the development people worked overtime to get them done faster. To abandon any of them would be to crush the team's dream of creating a great product and its own dream of increasing market share. By reducing marketing and advertising costs, additional money can be found, but she tried this last year: as predicted by the marketing director, the planned increase in sales did not materialize, but the brand assets suffered, which almost cost her an annual bonus. Some money could be made by increasing the prices of the most popular products, but she knew that the marketing department would strongly object. The quality of the products fully justified some price increases, but at some point consumers will still start leaving for competitors. What if you try to squeeze the necessary funds out of increasing the unit’s productivity? Last year it considered the idea of ​​closing one of its three plants and consolidating production at the remaining two. But the union will become furious and involve local politicians. Unsure if her boss understood what made a business competitive, the division head couldn't help but have doubts about her company's future. So she added one more item to her list of options: find another job. Many middle managers are forced to balance between accomplishing the tasks they are given and doing what they believe is best for the business. Of course, it is common for any performer to feel some pressure. But when people are given goals from above that are truly impossible to achieve, the emotional cost can be very high, not to mention the damage to the business.