Posted on 03/02/2005 3:13:38 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Far be it for me to defend screw-ups (though Ovitz was amusing), but the folks you mentioned would have been quite a bit richer had they been successful. And I'm not going to blame someone for making the best deal they can when taking a job.
I would imagine, the available talent pool for those kinds of positions is pretty thin. I'd say there's probably under 100 guys capable and willing to run HP. And each of those guys is looking to make the best deal they can.
Like when Lee Iacocca took over Chrysler and accepted a $1-a-year salary, no benefits and only stock options? He ended up making over $50 million because he turned the company around and had a vested interest in doing so. Or would you rather have had stock in Mattel when Jill Barad presided over a 50 percent drop in the stock price, then walked out with a severance package of $50 million? I would rather have had the Chrysler stock thank you very much.
I don't know, but there seems to be a lot of money. The stock options of the company are part of his contract and I therefore do not think they are illigal, but rather obscene.
And I would bet you are wrong. There are a lot of people who are running multi-billion dollar corporations who started out with nothing and when they started out no one would even dreamed of giving them a sandwich much less the position of CEO of a major company. For instance Dave Thomas of Wendy's, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Steve Jobs of Apple all took their companies to the billion-dollar level.
What there are are less than 100 people in the "good ol' boys" network of board chairmen from whom these people are drawn. The best CEOs are made in house, not hired from other successful companies.
Limbaugh, with no college, literally created an industry. Would he be one of the "100 guys capable and willing to run HP"?
I think he would be more than capable, but he's probably not willing. He's having too much fun doing what he does now.
I quite agree that he's probably happy where he is. My point is that he has the talent, but without the educational pedigree would never be looked at. Yet those with the right connections are brought on to destroy companies.
Yep, you're right.
I actually like the people you mentioned, Dave Thomas, Jobs,and Bezos. I wouldn't hire any of them to run a hot dog stand. These were guys who built their own companies and came up from nothing. The corporate animal who steps into another company is different thing altogether. Can you imagine Jobs running Boeing? Or Dave Thomas running GE?
Boards place very large bets on CEOs. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.
My point is that contained within Boeing or GE are several people who are probably far more capable than the usual suspects from the incestuous circle of Yalies or HBS graduates they usually choose from. The CEO should always come from within.
I don't know if that's true anymore. Maybe in the days when people stayed with a company for 20 or 30 years, but today there is such job hopping that moving up the ranks of a company to the top spot is a rarity.
I do believe CEOs should have an expertise within the industry, but I remain unconvinced that they should have spent an entire career at a single company.
Maybe we need to encourage it more.
And they are. Just take a look at what happened to Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packard.
Everything happens for a reason. The job hopping trend didn't begin in a vacuum. Your basic employee today has as much loyalty to the company as the company has for him/her. If profits go down, then lay off 500 people and hire back other people "as needed." A job opens up at the competition, apply for it and take as many clients as you can with you.
Employees and companies today have to be nimble. I remain amazed at the number of people who continue to harbor bitterness over getting fired or a prized employee leaving to go over and work for the competition.
All of this isn't nice, but it's the way the world works.
Getting 21 mill for trashing the company is being penalized? If your kids come home after curfew do you get them a new car?
It seems to work in Japan.
If it hurts bad enough, the board can change its policy.
"If you ask me, I know of only one class of workers who are overpaid and underworked – college professors."
A wh*re should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay -- such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients?
It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent wh*res is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors. ROBERT HEINLEIN
true as that may be, the point being raised in this thread was, that a few of them are rewarded handsomely even if utter failures.
To me it's simple, you do well, you should be paid well, you do badly, then sorry no bonus for you (at best).
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