You could learn a thing or two from this guy.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2008/11/02/lah.japan.ceo.pay.cut.cnn

11/21/2008 7:20:16 PM

funny.

11/21/2008 7:34:20 PM

I'd probably draw the line at making LESS than the employees, but otherwise it's a great idea, and there's no need for executive salaries to be as inflated as they are.

11/22/2008 8:03:37 PM

im all for making ceo salaries the same as the median income of the us if the average person can do their job

11/23/2008 12:20:05 AM

how about no bonuses for people who work for companies who are sucking ass and loosing my money.

11/23/2008 1:50:40 PM

This is how they need to come back to Washington in a few weeks.

The Chrysler CEO needs to DRIVE a charger. (Those are selling like crazy)

The Ford CEO needs to drive one of the new crossovers. (maybe the edge)

The GM CEO needs to drive a VOLT (if they have one that could make it that far). If not a hybrid Tahoe would do.

They need to walk in and say they have sold all of their corporate jets (except maybe one for emergency travel only), and suspended all corporate bonuses until they return to profitability. They need to come in with a plan to start by trimming excess management positions and combining brands that make the same product in to one.

Do we need a gmc yukon vs chevy tahoe still? or a gmc sierra vs chevy 1500? When was the last time a mercury sable was sold? You do not see Toyota making the same damn car under multiple different brands, especially ones that are not selling.

They need to walk in with a plan to build a strong selling fleet vehicle with a hybrid motor for prices comparable to gas. This should be a replacement for the likes of the Malibu, Taurus, or Crown Vic that police departments and other government agencies could use that would save them a measurable amount on fuel costs.

They need to walk in with a proposal to re-allocate large management salaries to hiring and paying for the best and brightest engineers and developers to make all this happen. Those are the fuckers that should be getting large bonuses, figure out how to roll out a hybrid for less than a gas engine and you deserve a few million in bonus pay.

CEO's are a dime a dozen, they need some brain power on the product development side to reposition themselves.

11/23/2008 2:13:10 PM

american CEOs have no shame.

if a japanese CEO fucks up, he commits suicide. if an american CEO fucks up, he gets a golden parachute.

11/23/2008 2:39:45 PM

the term golden parachute makes me think of golden shower porn i dont know why

11/23/2008 2:59:45 PM

it is a silly term

11/23/2008 3:01:04 PM

they should get a golden shower if their shareholders get wiped out

everyone with more than $50.00 of stock should get to take a piss on them

that would encourage a little more prudence.

11/23/2008 3:07:10 PM

^^^ lol

[Edited on November 23, 2008 at 3:26 PM. Reason : :]

11/23/2008 3:26:15 PM

^^^^ lol

11/23/2008 3:27:33 PM

Quote :

"They need to walk in with a plan to build a strong selling fleet vehicle with a hybrid motor for prices comparable to gas. This should be a replacement for the likes of the Malibu, Taurus, or Crown Vic that police departments and other government agencies could use that would save them a measurable amount on fuel costs."

YA KNOW, GM actually already sells a hybrid Malibu. Crazy I know...

As far as selling for prices comparable to gasoline models, uhhh what? So you want them to lose money when they sell those carS?

[Edited on November 23, 2008 at 5:45 PM. Reason : k]

11/23/2008 5:44:46 PM

.........or they could continue to engineer them to cost less and do more.

11/24/2008 10:22:44 AM

didn't Jeff Bezos and some other tech CEOs forgo salaries when the dot com bubble burst?

11/24/2008 10:30:56 AM

It's similar to the Great Depression, except instead of seeing a poor man in rags begging for a dime on a street corner, we're seeing a bunch of pricks in black suits begging for billions.

11/24/2008 10:51:41 AM

Iococa made $5 a year when he took over Chrysler and they got bailed out the first time.

11/24/2008 11:31:06 AM

Japan was awash with a wave of CEO suicides in the late 90's.

Except, it wasn't.

I seriously question the educational background some of you have.

11/24/2008 12:54:51 PM

i was slightly exaggerating. but only slightly.

11/24/2008 2:24:09 PM

Str8BacardiL, if they did all you suggest, plus perhaps a few more reorganization items, they wouldn't need to go to government to ask for money. I would invest in them, as would thousands of other people. Even with their bloated deals with UAW, they would make money.

If they want government to help, that's easy. Just declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. We've already arranged for this intervention if they want it.

11/24/2008 3:22:43 PM

the thought of thousands and thousands of people being allowed to all piss on Rick Wagoner is interesting.

Just the logistics of it all.

Would you line everyone up who wanted to piss on him, say in Detroit, and get it all over with in one day?

or

Would you fly Wagoner all over the country on his private jet stopping in a couple of places in every state to allow everyone to piss all over him?


or

Maybe you could just have a gigantic oil tank type container where in everyones pee is placed by mailing or otherwise and just make Wagoner swim around in it long enough to guarantee that a little bit of every single persons piss has passed over his skin?


The best time to do this would be mid-August for maximum pee stench effect.

11/24/2008 5:13:19 PM

^ lawl

11/24/2008 5:14:42 PM

11/24/2008 5:29:32 PM

Again, "average worker pay" excludes compensation such as health and vacation benefits.

11/24/2008 5:44:41 PM

^ so?

11/24/2008 6:19:07 PM

Just pointing it out. Is there a reason I should not have?

11/24/2008 6:23:11 PM

oh its fine.

I was just asking why that would matter.

11/24/2008 6:24:51 PM

A friend of mine who worked at a production plant for Ford told me that most the management and engineers drive lexuses, bmw, honda, and various other import brands.

lol

11/24/2008 6:45:58 PM

The Ford CEO isn't some loser legacy hire from out of nowhere. Mulally is a smart guy who was recruited from outside; he has a great track record and has done a good job. The idea that the company should pay someone like him less is nuts. How else are these shit-holes going to attract top talent except by paying them well?

11/24/2008 8:11:14 PM

^^^^^^^

Even when you look at total compensation Corporate Profits was pulling away from Compensation, though by not nearly so much.

At the time it was really disconcerting for me because Capital and Labor's share on national income have remained pretty constant since at least the Great Depression.

Now I think a non-trivial portion of that was over-estimated profits in the financial industry. During the boom the Finance sector contributed was 25% of all Corporate Profits.

11/24/2008 8:26:31 PM

I just watched a Jaguar do 50+ miles a gallon even with AC on, nav system running, etc. This is a luxury performance vehicle with a range of, are you ready for this? 1000 miles. Someone explain to me why we should bale these companies out when they can't (or won't) make a car that can even approach that blend of performance, style, and fuel economy.

11/24/2008 9:00:28 PM

b.c they represent USA #1!!!

11/24/2008 9:52:17 PM

^^ what vehicle was that?

11/24/2008 9:55:47 PM

A Jaguar? As in the brand Ford recently sold?

Google tells me Fuel Economy = 16 MPG city / 25 MPG highway

11/24/2008 10:14:44 PM

XJ 6 twin turbo. Watch the most recent (season 12, ep. 4 of Top Gear). They did a semi-hypermiling challenge. They picked a VW Polo Blumotion, A Subaru Legacy station wagon/crossover, and Jeremy Clarkson brought a Jag since he felt like it was pointless to even try to meet the goal.

The real point I was making with that post though was not that Jag makes an awesome car (although they do, just not an economically viable one) it's that GMs refusal to make a more fuel efficient engine is just that, a refusal. If they produced smaller, efficient, urban friendly cars and marketed them properly they'd sell them. All that bullshit about, "American's don't want that product!" is bullshit. Nobody wanted enormous, wasteful, shitty looking SUVs either until they started marketing the shit out of them. At the minimum they should've been trying to at least be competitive on MPGs with their sedans and 2-doors but they couldn't be bothered with that either so when people did start paying attention to fuel economy they had nothing to offer.

American automakers produce, by and large, poorly designed cars, poorly made cars (because unions suck for quality control and oppose automation at every turn). As a result they're continuing to lose market share, and will continue to do so until they pull their heads out of their collective asses and rethink the business model they're currently using. Letting them file for bankruptcy and forcing them to re-organize and allowing them to renegotiate or boot the unions is the best possible outcome. Hell, most people will buy American if all things are equal out of a sense of patriotism, but all things have not been equal for quite a while now because the domestic auto industry is a clusterfuck.

11/24/2008 11:46:23 PM

I remember my moms old 1991 XJ6 getting awesome gas mileage. That was one heavy ass car too.

That car had dozens of problems, but gas mileage and strength would not be of them. It was built like a tank, sipped gas, and hugged the road.

11/29/2008 1:37:22 AM

In all fairness, it was a diesel, but still. Hell, why aren't we producing more diesels? They love them in Europe.

11/30/2008 7:20:19 AM

Yeah, my 1990 pontiac grand am made 30/gal on the highway. it's absurd that in 18 years some auto manufacturers haven't been able to make a car with better gas mileage than that. Granted, it was a relatively light car, but still. The composites we use today have to be lighter than the steel that baby had in it, so, if they used an identical engine, they should have improved gas mileage based on the lighter weight alone

11/30/2008 9:58:02 PM

Quote :

"You could learn a thing or two from this guy."

But..but...but why do you hate success?


The sooner people realize that employs are not seen as people by CEOs but more like just another overhead expenditure the quicker they will stop feigning outrage when a business owner does whatever he can to dick over workers in order to save their own ass. Not that that comment has anything to do with the video but more so my take on business in general.

11/30/2008 10:41:55 PM

I do not have a problem with CEO's of successful companies being compensated well and rewarded.

I way too many cases they make bad decisions that not only screw their own employees, but the public as a whole when the failures of these huge companies ripple through the whole economy.

I kind of cringed wen I heard "AIG is too big to let fail". If a company is "too big to fail" maybe it is just too damn big, society as a whole should not have our welfare tied to the sucess of one company.

12/1/2008 12:29:27 AM

Market capitalization of General Motors, makes real cars like Buicks and Cadillacs: $3.2 billion.

Market capitalization of Mattel Inc., makes toy cars like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars: $4.9 billion.

12/1/2008 9:17:16 AM

^^ I completely agree

Financial markets are a cycle....sometimes its good, sometimes its bad.

On a side note, I would like some investigative reporter to look into how much money the economists and politicians pushing for these bailouts have tied in the stock of each company. Has someone done this already?

12/1/2008 11:21:40 AM

Quote :

"And for this week's round of congressional hearings on the auto bailout, all three company chiefs will skip the lavish travel arrangements. Mulally is coming by car from Detroit for this week's second round of congressional hearings on government help for the Big Three. GM Chief Rick Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek from Detroit to Capitol Hill, spokesman Tony Cervone said Tuesday. And Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli won't travel by corporate jet, but a spokeswoman declined to elaborate on his travel plans, citing security reasons."

LOL'd all over myself.

12/2/2008 12:44:03 PM

Quote :

"When was the last time a mercury sable was sold? You do not see Toyota making the same damn car under multiple different brands, especially ones that are not selling. "

Under different brands, no, but they definitely have a lot of overlap with their cars. If you go to their site, they currently make:

Yaris
Corolla
Matrix
Camry
Camry Solara
Prius
Venza
Avalon

Tacoma
Tundra

RAV4
FJ Cruiser
Highlander
4Runner
Sequoia
Land Cruiser
Sienna

Within the last 10 years, there's also been the Celica and Echo.

12/2/2008 3:01:43 PM

If you add in Lexus and scion, then Toyota makes 30 named models. Honda (w/ Acrua) has 15 counting the fuel cell one. GM currently produces 64...

12/3/2008 2:54:06 PM

Quote :

"A friend of mine who worked at a production plant for Ford told me that most the management and engineers drive lexuses, bmw, honda, and various other import brands. lol"

Really? I can't remember what my Aunt did, but it was something somewhat senior for Ford. She actually had in her contract that she had to drive a Ford, she could own other cars of course, but she had to have a Ford I guess to drive to work. She decided on Jag.

12/3/2008 3:12:14 PM

12/4/2008 10:19:39 AM

GM sales in 2007: 9,370,000 vehicles
Toyota sales in 2007: 9,366,418 vehicles

GM profit/loss in 2007: -$38,730,000,000 (-$4,055 per car)
Toyota profit in 2007: +$17,146,000,000 (+$1,874 per car)

12/11/2008 9:33:38 AM

Do you think it's just accounting tricks that GM's COR is much less than Toyotas for the same number of cars?

Seems like if it is true, then from an efficiency point of view, they are doing ok and it really is all the pension obligations that are killing them.

12/11/2008 10:08:05 AM

Not at all; as the UAW keeps pointing out, wages + pensions + healthcare only account for about 12% of company expenses. As such, if it all went away and workers labored for free without benefits then GM would still be losing money (although clearly not by much).

No, GM's problems can only be solved by a bankruptcy court. I do not have the figures on its debt servicing obligations, especially now that it is close to default, but I suspect they exceed its UAW costs by a fair margin. And unlike UAW related costs, bankruptcy would not just reduce them, it would eliminate them entirely.

12/11/2008 11:13:11 AM