How is it that CEOs manage to corral all the money in this country? Pulling a fatheaded stunt like this doesn’t exactly strike me as an example of top-shelf business acumen. Howard Schultz would have a tough time as a barista with an uptake this slow.
• Late update: And lest you think buffoonery is confined to the boardroom, we have this from Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), this from Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), and this from Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.). Three very small tinfoil beanies indeed.
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Like Carlin said…the more complicated the coffee order, the bigger the asshole.
Schultz must always order his Fair Trade certified, with sugar-free soy milk, etc.
They’re just putting up a front, showing Average Joe that they’re just as sick of the bullshit as the little guy. Only they are part of the problem, with profit over ethics, shipping jobs overseas and the writing off the closed factories, paying a substantially lower tax rates, etc. Wolves among the sheep….
We all think we’re above average, but mathematics insists that about half of us are not. And we all think we’re one break away from making the big time. So when it’s time for a vote on whomever is up to bat next, we think, toss him a softball, because it could be up there next.
It makes no sense why we give CEOs these huge severance packages, but the guys voting all think, that could be me next year.
The whole CEO / board of directors thing makes no sense. A corporation wants prestige, so it hands out board chairs like dieing king hands out knighthoods. These board members know that hiring the best guy serves their short term interests, but taking care of those who got them their serves their long term ones.
It’s crazy that the US of A basically invented the MBA and the study of business as an academic field, and yet we’re still winging it.
HPD, speaking as an American-educated MBA, I’ve studied the relationship between boards and CEOs. They are prone to fuckups just as much as normal individuals.
Consider that most boards are not educated in the business field, and have “real” jobs doing something else. They’re usually picked for their marquee value in reassuring investors (“Oh, that person reeks of integrity, so this must be a well run company”). Think someone like Walter Cronkite. They especially are not trained in how to be members of a board of directors, so they don’t really know their job.
Add to that fact the further tendency of CEOs to want to run the show themselves and not want to be second-guessed by the boards. Think about it. You’re a board hiring a guy to run your multi-zillion dollar company. You WANT a take-charge I’m-the-boss kind of guy, right? Unfortunately, that isn’t always the best kind of person to have, but that’s the tendency.
Its kind of like those people who yearn for the return of Mussolini because he made the trains run on time. Its a shitty idea in a democratic government, but it is said often in business that a company is not a democracy, so that inclination is acted on a lot.
You can tell this is in the thinking when the press release announcing the hiring of Mr. Strongman talks about his “strong leadership skills”, and he’s got a book out that features his name as the author as big as or bigger than the title.
The result is a CEO who sees it as in his personal interests to marginalize the board, and a board that doesn’t really know how to keep the CEO in line. Result? Enron, Tyco, MCI etc. Assholes like Sumner Redstone go from failure to failure while getting raises all the way.
What’s worse (or better, depending on your point of view) is that these guys write all the books, get all the publicity and set the image for all the other CEO’s, who for the most part work hard and deliver appropriate (not obscene) profits to the stockholders.
Its enough to make a guy need a bike ride just to calm down….
Just one more reason to avoid Fourbucks. Now in addition to avoiding awful espresso you can feel good about not putting any money towards this ass-hat’s compensation plan. I still remember when these guys boasted about taking over the coffee biz in Italy, putting thousands of mom-and-pop bars out of biz. There may be a Fourbucks stlll open in some heavily-touristed area of Italy but I’ve never seen one over there. I wonder how many euros they pissed away on that ill-advised expansion dream? Maybe they oughta sponsor a pro cycling team?