The Nardelli Business Model: Naked Big Little Men of Detroit, Suicidal Corporate Shoguns Of Japan, and Sociopathic Managers of Arabia
It was quite a sight: the Big Little Men
of motor town, the CEOs, finally seen as they have been for years: naked, finally seen as leaders with
no clothes on. There they were, just off their corporate jets. One of them, a good prototype of yesterday's CEO, was
Mr. Bob Nardelli, who had agreed in 2007 to leave Home Depot for a price of
over $210 million after wreaking havoc with it: its share was gutted long
before the market crash. While at Home Depot, reports indicate that he “fought
tooth and nail” to defend his exorbitant compensation package he received for
screwing up the company. It was telling that, after six years at the company,
Nardelli refused to tie his future stock awards to shareholder gains. He knew
something others did not know: the emperor really had no clothes.
At Home Depot greed won the day, but
there was no trickle down to other employees, shareholders, or the economy in
general. Shareholder threats of revolt, unusual in America’s CEO-worshipping
business culture, forced him to resign- and he landed with a ‘platinum
parachute’ rather than a golden one.
Within
months he had found another victim: he managed to get the top job at Chrysler.
If he did not cause the disaster of his corner of the auto industry turf, there
is no indication that he did anything to assuage it- and that was long before
the credit crisis.
It may be worth it to give Mr. Nardelli and his ilk another golden parachute, outrageous that may be, just to clear the way for new leadership and a new chapter in the American auto industry.
We sometimes read, mostly in the past now, about culpable Japanese or Korean CEOs who bow in public and gives a dignified, or tearful, apology for corporate mismanagement. On rare occasions in the past we have heard of a suicide or two in East Asia. Of course the Japanese and Korean CEOs kowtow (ok, I know they are not Chinese) and apologize after they are exposed.
In
the Middle East, especially in the oligarchy-ridden Arab world, they would mostly
ignore it. In rare occasions they shrug it off and defend it heatedly. It is a
cultural trait that some call “taking pride in one’s sin”. It is based on a
concept familiar to Westerners nowadys, “denial,
denial, denial”- except that the potentates and oligarchs in the New Middle
East actually believe their own denial. Sort of like sociopaths are supposed to
behave- not much different from what has been going on in corporate America (e.g Bernie Ebert of Worldcom, jailbird Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Walsh of GE and the corporate jet-gate, Nardelli the repeat offender of of Home Depot and Chrysler, the other Detroit CEOs, Dick Grasso of the NYSE, Citigroup, Lehman, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wamu, Countrywide...etc, etc).
Post-election Question of the Week: A question to John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Sarah Palin, Fox News, and all those right wing radio warriors and their misguided listeners: did the American people really opt for socialism this year?
Arab media report that negotiations are under way with hijackers of the Saudi oil tanker. They claim that they may reduce the ransom requested from $25 million to $15 million. Some reports also tell of a tanker laden with Iranian crude hijacked earlier. The media report that the pirates who took the Saudi ship belong to the same tribe as Somalia’s deputy prime minister (I didn’t know they still have recognized leaders) who is involved in negotiations with them. The tribe is called the “’aier” tribe, which in Gulf and Peninsula Arabic dialect also means the same as “schawnz” means in German. But the pirates are not called “schwanz-kopfs”, not yet.
Cheersmhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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