AllentownJake (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 10:57 AM
Original message
The Captain Goes Down with the Ship
Its an old concept. Once upon a time when ships were sailing the seas it was required for a captain to be the last one on the life boats. The captain and his officers were the first ones on the boat and they were the last ones off.
We have changed as a society in that the Captain of a corporation appears to be the first one on the lifeboat if things fail.
The concept was rather simple. If you as a captain screwed up and sank the ship, you'd be the least likely to survive. Now in corporate America if you crash the ship, your survival is ensured, and your crashing the ship is rewarded. You get millions of dollars, a pension, and health benefits for the rest of your life to leave. There really are little consequences for crashing the ship. Hell, you even might be given a new ship to pilot in a few weeks.
Time for us to remember that old maritime concept with our business leaders. If you crash the ship, you go down with it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6311778DUmmies scream socialist obscenities when corporate officers are granted stock options. Do DUmmies have any
concept of what happens when stock options sink beneath the waves?
If you expand the DUmmy's sentiment to government, this rant sounds like a theat against
the jug-eared Kenyan to me.
Better alert flag@whitehouse.gov !
geckosfeet (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. Agreed. However, blaming ones charges for ones failures in leadership
is a management technique that has been elevated to an art form in modern corporate culture.
A sampling of headlines from today:
"US President Barack Obama on Friday blamed headline-hungry television networks for enflaming an ugly backlash ....."
"A combative Obama also accused health insurance firms of holding sick Americans "hostage"...."
"President Obama on Friday accused some insurance companies of trying to undermine his plans
for overhauling health care by “funding in opposition,†"
DUmmy havocmom, embracing the DUmmy fantasy that America starts wars:
havocmom (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 11:20 AM
2. Agree. Would like to widen the scope also: Start a war and you lead the first charge
live, in person, at the head of the column. Make the chicken hawks think about their own safety if they insist on starting fights
BTW, Good to see you here this morning.
DUmmy Ikonoklast, having been to the movies, knows all about corporate board meeting protocols:
Ikonoklast (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
3. Agreed. At one time, if you were running the show, and made a bad
decision costing the company you were hired to run customer, income, and market share, you got your head handed to you at the next board meeting.
It's like getting called up to Major Leagues, then batting .190 with thirty-two errors, and getting a six-year twenty million dollar contract for the effort.
Failed analogy. Lots of .190 hitters make 3 mill in the majors today.
DUmmy EvolveOrConvolve, as coach would say, knows excrescence about baseball:
EvolveOrConvolve (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 11:27 AM
4. Great analogy!
When the CEO is in bed with the Chairman of the Board (or they are the same person), and both are in bed with the board of directors, it's become easy for these guys to set things up nicely for themselves. There is very little accountability, and I think it's something that needs to be regulated more stringently. But getting the gov't to regulate these guys is like pulling teeth. The groups of people in gov't and corporation are so intertwined that it will never happen until we have a president with the balls to appoint real industry watchdogs to these positions.
DUmmy EvolveOrConvolve keeps bumping up against that pesky Constitution thingy.
DUmmy mia, whose doughnut shop career just isn't taking off, has had it:
mia (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-15-09 11:41 AM
Response to Original message
7. CEOs are set up for this with their employment contracts...
"golden parachutes" and other perks.
Heartless as it seems, those who are best able to overlook the needs of the masses are rewarded the most.
DUmmy mia, riddle me this: If those heartless CEOs are so bad, why do America's worthless parasitic masses
(including yourself) live so much better than the worthless parasitic masses of any other country in the world?
DUmmy mia might strike closer to the truth if she changed "overlook" to "oversee".
