General Discussion

Author

Fat Cats

RichardJW

2002-06-24, 4:42 pm

Here's a link to a recent news article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/executive...,740594,00.html
More recent news is that the Burberry chief exec. has received a large bonus but the value of the company has increased rather than decreased. However, whether the company's fortunes increase or decrease the board of directors always get themselves a handsome prize - mostly because they hand them out to each other! Should chief executives award themselves such large bonuses when their companies do badly? I suppose one could argue in the case of Vodafone that it is not all down to the chief executive and that there are other factors - that of simple supply and demand being an obvious one. I find it quite amusing that people think that the chief executive is worth at a least a couple of hundred of ordinary workers for a company. ICGN (International Corporate Governance Network) seem to have agreed. They have called into question in a breaking report the notion that if a chief executive is not paid such a rate then he will leave for another company. Any comments appreciated.

odonata

2002-06-24, 4:59 pm

Many companies no longer plan for future, rather a "fatcat" comes aboard, saves some money for a few quarters (layoffs, decrease in spending is the quickest way), then they get themselves a big fat bonus then move on to the next company.

I believe this is going to run a lot of companies (even these large corporations) into the ground as these techniques will gradually catch up to them. Companies need to have not only short-term, but long term plans in place to improve on their spending and ways to actually earn money, not just appear to earn money due to decrease in spending. I don't think many companies are truly and seriously implementing long term plans.

my .02

RichardJW

2002-06-24, 5:14 pm

quote:
I don't think many companies are truly and seriously implementing long term plans.

That's the way of the world, I mean look at politicians and the way they react to events and only then changing legislation as a result of them rather than having any foresight.

quote:
a "fatcat" comes aboard, saves some money for a few quarters (layoffs, decrease in spending is the quickest way), then they get themselves a big fat bonus then move on to the next company.

The point I was making is that Vodafone has made huge losses, mostly down to immense investments in 3rd generation mobile phone technology, and surely those losses would be attributable to the directors of the company who pull the shots on decisions like that. They still award themselves huge bonuses for having done this - namely, the largest loss in UK corporate history. It can't be at all good for people seeking employment in embedded technologies but they're off for a round of golf.

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