With all the talk recently of both Groupon trying to go public and the Haqqani Network playing a more prominent role in the political underworld, I got to thinking: do criminal gangs have growth strategies? Do they sit around a table to go through the pros and cons of ‘going public’, so to speak? (To be clear, I am not suggesting Groupon is a criminal operation. I simply merged its pursuit of public-ownership with the rising prominence of the Haqqani Network.)
Pictured above, John Gotti was a prominent NYC-based mobster who rose to power by murdering (or arranging the murder) of the crime family boss. Called “The Dapper Don”, Gotti made a point of getting himself into the news. Supposedly, Gotti’s desire to maintain a highly-visible public persona made him a target for the FBI. Clearly, there are risks to going ‘public’.
So, I started assembling a list of pros and cons for taking a criminal gang public.
PROs
(1) Increased revenue
(2) Greater street ‘cred’
(3) Improved chances for a movie deal
(4) Access to criminal deals with the ‘big boys’ of the underworld
CONs
(1) Greater scrutiny from law enforcement/military
(2) More likely to suffer from spin-offs and other fractions
(3) Increased likelihood of death/incarceration for senior management
What upsides and downsides of going public did I miss?
