Anyway, this seems an uncharacteristically juvenile HBR article. Of course businesses are not 100% efficient, they are run by humans after all. But firms which are more efficient then others have lower operating costs, better R&D, higher margins, more innovation, etc. - these are the competitive advantage that 'efficient' firms use to get the edge on competitors. That's not to say that each one doesn't do something to make you as an investor go crazy.
> Anyway, this seems an uncharacteristically juvenile HBR article. Of course businesses are not 100% efficient, they are run by humans after all. But firms which are more efficient then others have lower operating costs, better R&D, higher margins, more innovation, etc. - these are the competitive advantage that 'efficient' firms use to get the edge on competitors. That's not to say that each one doesn't do something to make you as an investor go crazy.
Cut him some slack, from his bio he looks like a pure academic who hasn't done business. They all have lofty ideas about how easy and organized business should be, as opposed to a gritty, murky, sorting-it-out type thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_market_theory
Anyway, this seems an uncharacteristically juvenile HBR article. Of course businesses are not 100% efficient, they are run by humans after all. But firms which are more efficient then others have lower operating costs, better R&D, higher margins, more innovation, etc. - these are the competitive advantage that 'efficient' firms use to get the edge on competitors. That's not to say that each one doesn't do something to make you as an investor go crazy.