Word: costs
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Experiencing the future as Branson imagines it will cost you less than $300, the price of a bare-bones economy ticket between Los Angeles and New York City on one of Virgin America's 149-seat A320s. The planes are new, and the leather seats are comfortable enough for sleeping, even in coach. There are power outlets at every seat. The most profound change, though, doesn't look like much of an improvement at first. Like many U.S. carriers, Virgin America charges for food in economy class. But flight attendants don't dole it out from a cart like gruel...
...runs on the same stuff. The price of jet fuel has risen 69% in the past year, and Virgin's executives, like their rivals, lie under its sword. "Other than the recession and $110-a-barrel oil, I see nothing but opportunity," CEO Cush deadpans. He can't cost-cut his way out; the limits of that strategy are obvious. The big carriers have taken $15 billion in costs out since 2001 but are paying $17 billion more for fuel...
That outlook is a departure for many firms. "People used to think HR was just a cost center and not a source of value creation," says Alex Edmans, a finance professor at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who has studied engagement. In one paper, Edmans looked at Fortune's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and found that those firms' stock price from 1998 to 2005 rose an average 14% per year, as compared with 6% for the market overall. Edmans considers that pretty strong evidence. But there is always a chance that something else...
...turning the tie right side out--take about an hour. "The flexibility to reproduce something if it's doing well or to not produce a lot of something if we don't know it's going to do well has a benefit on top of the bare cost of producing that one tie," says Del Vecchio. "We can get things in three days if we want to. China could never do that...
...fair to the legions of apparel manufacturers who have gone overseas, the economics of making a Brooks Brothers tie in the U.S. are far different from those of making, say, plain cotton underwear. About 70% of the cost of making a Brooks tie comes from materials (the company imports almost all its silk fabric from England and Italy), which leaves a fairly small fraction of the cost coming from labor. Compare that with making a Brooks shirt, for which the proportion is flipped--just 30% of the cost of production is from the material--and it's easy...