March 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Michael Valentine Jones (3/18/2009)
Collecting bonuses and laying off workers while the business sinks like a stone.
AWESOME!
* Noel
March 24, 2009 at 1:37 am
Jeff has summed up the main role of a CEO in one word. I've seen CEO's that were great leaders, and I've seen CEO's that were mediocre leaders, but managed the company reasonably well, and I've seen CEO's that did neither. One of the hardest tasks for a CEO is suppressing his (or her) own egotistical needs to do what's right for the company, and not what's best for the CEO personally.
I'm fortunate to work for a company with an excellent CEO, who knows the business, treats people well, and works to protect shareholders long term interests. I've worked at companies where the CEO was more interested in personal benefit, using company assets for personal gain or enjoyment, and those companies fared poorly in the long run.
At one company, someone asked why we had a company pickup truck with Colorado plates when we had no interests in Colorado. The answer was the CEO had a ranch in Colorado, and used the truck to drive there and back, all expenses paid.
I've become a firm believer in holding CEO's responsible for the performance of a company. There should be no golden parachutes, no long term contracts (make them at will employees that can be fired tomorrow), restricted stock instead of options (with long vesting periods as well), and no special benefits. Calculate CEO pension using the same criteria used for employees. No pension for employees, then no pension for the CEO. Same thing with health and life insurance. I don't begrudge top pay for top performers, but there's an awful lot of mediocre performers getting paid well above the norm.
March 24, 2009 at 8:54 am
Well said, Ross.
I'm with you, they can make more, but not at a ratio out of line with workers. If employees don't get bonuses, neither do execs.
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