Hank's Blog

Monday, August 18, 2003

Succeeding by Failure, the CEO Way
Since the beginning of the new century, over 570 public companies - including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart - have declared bankruptcy. 2.7 million Americans have lost their jobs. Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure. At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished - including $1 billion in employees' pension funds - and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million. In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozlowski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that, since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers. Since 1999, Bernie Ebbers - who claims he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion - received over $44 million in pay. When Ebbers resigned in April 2002, his severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer...
- from Arianna Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough"

¶ 1:12 PM

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