Synchro, et al,
There's another "intangible" that Gibson hopefully falls back into. It's called the "platinum and gold standard" in conducting their business. That standard has been shelved and ignored by Gibson as well as corporate America in large part over the last 1/2 century or so.
Case in point:
When I graduated, I worked at a large well known insurance company in NYC that prided itself in its I.T. workforce. There was constant in house training, MANDATORY technical education at least 2-3 times per year. (or you got canned). You had to prove yourself worthy of consideration to even get the programming training they offered.
Flash forward to today..that same insurance company (I recently consulted for them) outsourced its I.T. department to some "we can do it cheaper" India national company. Bottom line - The gold/platinum standard became the "what's good enough" standard. And the "good enough" standard was often missed. When you aim low, you're quite liable to miss and hit lower.
I've heard many economic theories by those who have advanced degrees and have read the books. The theory of producing goods "cheaper" (like overseas production and service) may be ideal - on the hand calculator; but it doesn't often give the desired results as "so and so's school of economic thought so states" in the real world. In other words, you end up with cheap crap or cheap "(lack of) service". Economic theory and the real world have been out of sync on this for quite sometime now.
Yeah, Gibson should blow old Henry J. off. That would be a good start. He is the principle factor in this mess. I wonder what economic theory/business paradigm he was following; or if he ever did study any form of economics or business.
(If so, perhaps he missed a few important chapters)
J Mo'