Has Dixon let another cat out of the bag?
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Still wondering why Adam Air is in their sights? Its not because they want to monopolise the lowest yielding routes in South East Asia. 
Qantas call centre, ticketing and IT to India, Engineering to China, crewing to Indo, why not? What's stopping them? GD tells us quite openly we have no god given rights to these jobs. Doesn't seem as far fetched anymore, does it?
Qantas call centre, ticketing and IT to India, Engineering to China, crewing to Indo, why not? What's stopping them? GD tells us quite openly we have no god given rights to these jobs. Doesn't seem as far fetched anymore, does it?
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Why pick on Dixon?
Australian corporate executives rake in millions
By Barry Jobson and Terry Cook
26 January 2006
After months of wrangling, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission last year granted workers on the minimum wage a $A17.40 increase, bringing their pay up to the princely sum of $487.40 a week. Even though the increase was miniscule, big business organisations joined with the Howard government to insist that the “economy” could not afford it and to lecture workers on the need to exercise restraint.
No such standards apply, however, when it comes to the remunerations awarded to CEOs and leading executives of many of the same corporations. While workers and their families struggle every day to survive, Australia’s well-heeled executives rake in millions of dollars annually in salaries, share options, retention payments and a host of other lurks and perks.
In fact, most top executives are rewarded precisely for their ability to axe jobs and working conditions to boost profits and share values. In other words, their bulging salary packages and opulent life styles are the direct result of creating ever-increasing levels of hardship for working class families.
The Australian Financial Review’s seventh annual study of executive pay, published at the end of 2005, showed that the average remuneration for a top executive of a leading 300 company rose by nearly 20 percent to $1.9 million, up from $1.6 million in 2004.
The average base salary increased 6 percent to $686,000, or 13 times the average wage of a worker. But when bonuses, share options and other lucrative incentive payments are included, the figure jumps to 34 times the average worker’s wage. One in four of the CEOs received bonuses of more than $1 million.
At the top of the pyramid, construction and project developer Leighton’s chief executive Wal King received a package worth $12.8 million. He also collected deferred bonus payments for 1988 and 2000 as well as $7 million in interest, bringing his income up to $35 million. Paid as a wage, King would have received $246,000 a week, compared to the median weekly income of workers of just $660. Three of Leighton’s other senior executives were paid more than $1.5 million each in bonuses alone.
Macquarie Bank CEO Allan Moss received an increase of $5.8 million, bringing his total up to $18.5 million. Of this, $17 million was paid as bonuses. Macquarie Bank investment group chief Nicholas Moore’s package increased by $6.8 million to $18.2 million. The bank’s executive chairman David Clarke scored $9.2 million.
Investment and “financial engineering” firm Babcock and Brown CEO Phillip Green received $10.3 million, while retailing giant Woolworth’s Roger Corbett got $8.4 million. Burns Philip managing director Ted Degnan was paid $7.7 million and Lend Lease’s CEO Greg Clarke received $6.5 million.
Other banking chiefs also did well. Westpac’s David Morgan pulled in $7.4 million, ANZ CEO John McFarlane got $6.9 million, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s former CEO David Murray made $5.4 million. National Australia Bank (NAB) chief John Stewart had just renewed his contract for an extra $500,000, bringing his package up to $6.43 million.
Significantly, these banks have eliminated many thousands of jobs in recent years. NAB is currently slashing 4,000 jobs from its global organisation.
Likewise, Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon received a package worth over $6.4 million. Last year, Qantas relocated cabin crew jobs overseas to reduce its wages bill and threatened the jobs of maintenance workers unless they made substantial concessions to cut costs.
Newly appointed Telstra CEO Sol Trugillo negotiated an annual base salary worth $3 million plus up to $10 million a year in “performance” bonuses. Trugillo has already announced he will axe 12,000 jobs.
Generous side benefits
While employers rail against workers’ claims for travelling allowances or shift penalties, there is no end of “fringe benefits” for company executives. Despite drawing enormous pay cheques, they insist on a whole range of extras.
Frank Lowy, chairman of multi-million dollar property firm Westfield, was entitled to 75 hours a year private use of the company’s aircraft, a perk worth $365,805. Even Qantas non-executive director James Packer obtained $4,775 worth of travel benefits. Packer has just inherited his billionaire father’s media empire. Kerry Packer left behind an estimated personal fortune of $7 billion.
Coles Myer executives got free tax planning while non-executive directors received $5,825 a year to cover home-office costs—almost a quarter of the minimum wage of $25,000 a year. Myer division head Dawn Roberson was entitled to three business-class return airfares to the US every year for herself and her dependents. Kmart chief Larry Davis was entitled to six business-class airfares annually. As a matter of course, top executives at Telstra enjoyed free internet services, line rental and mobile phones.
Most senior executives are provided with cars for personal use, with free petrol. However, for some, like Publishing and Broadcasting chief executive John Alexandra, the car comes with a driver. Along with other benefits, CSR chief Alex Brennan received $42,275 in “spouse travel expenses, accommodation and corporate hospitality”.
Burswood Casino CEO David Courtney received “complimentary privileges” at Crown and Burswood Casinos and annual return fares for himself and his family between Melbourne and Perth. Fosters directors got free tickets to entertainment and sporting events worth thousands of dollars, many enjoying the luxury of private boxes. To enhance the experience, they received large quantities of free wine, beer and other beverages.
Double standards also apply when it comes to severance pay. Retrenched workers are paid a pittance for years of service or robbed of their entitlements altogether when companies go bankrupt or relocate. Yet millions of dollars are given to departing senior executives, including many who presided over company failures. Many retiring executives are also retained as consultants on large retainers.
Departing Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski received a $5 million payout, plus shares worth $1.96 million, while NAB CEO Frank Cicutto received $14 million. CBA CEO David Murray’s golden handshake was worth $25 million, and Colonial First State CEO Chris Cuffe received $32 million.
Coles Myers chief Steven Cain got a payout worth $4.6 million after working for the company for just six months. Woolworths chief Roger Corbett will get a $3 million when he retires this year and a $3 million five-star consultancy deal with the company.
Some executives receive hefty retention payments—now dubbed “golden handcuffs”—to encourage them to stay on after their contract expires.
Publisher John Fairfax Holdings offered its chief operating officer Brian Evans $500,000 to stay around last year during the transition to a new CEO. Loyalty was in short supply it seems, because Evans declined the offer and became chief executive officer with publishers PMP.
Evans’s new company, which was engaged in restructuring its operations at the time, said it valued Evans for his experience in improving revenue growth at Fairfax through “cost reduction and restructuring”. Last June, he gave management at two Fairfax publications, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, a week to come up with $50 million in cost savings.
One of the largest retention payments was to Wesfarmers former managing director Michael Chaney after his contract expired in 2002. The company handed him $2 million extra a year on top of his $6.1 million package to keep him there until June 2005.
Chaney, president of the Business Council of Australia and chairman of its employment and participation taskforce, is a strident supporter of Prime Minister John Howard’s new draconian industrial relations laws, which will be used to further dismantle workers’ wages, conditions and rights.
Last August Chaney told the media “increased deregulation of industrial relations means greater prosperity”. Given that Chaney defends the salaries paid to executives “as reflecting the world market,” it is not hard to fathom whose prosperity he is referring to.
The new laws include the establishment of a so-called Fair Pay Commission, staffed by government appointees and charged with holding down workers’ wages. The legislation will ensure that executive incomes grow even faster, at the expense of the jobs and
By Barry Jobson and Terry Cook
26 January 2006
After months of wrangling, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission last year granted workers on the minimum wage a $A17.40 increase, bringing their pay up to the princely sum of $487.40 a week. Even though the increase was miniscule, big business organisations joined with the Howard government to insist that the “economy” could not afford it and to lecture workers on the need to exercise restraint.
No such standards apply, however, when it comes to the remunerations awarded to CEOs and leading executives of many of the same corporations. While workers and their families struggle every day to survive, Australia’s well-heeled executives rake in millions of dollars annually in salaries, share options, retention payments and a host of other lurks and perks.
In fact, most top executives are rewarded precisely for their ability to axe jobs and working conditions to boost profits and share values. In other words, their bulging salary packages and opulent life styles are the direct result of creating ever-increasing levels of hardship for working class families.
The Australian Financial Review’s seventh annual study of executive pay, published at the end of 2005, showed that the average remuneration for a top executive of a leading 300 company rose by nearly 20 percent to $1.9 million, up from $1.6 million in 2004.
The average base salary increased 6 percent to $686,000, or 13 times the average wage of a worker. But when bonuses, share options and other lucrative incentive payments are included, the figure jumps to 34 times the average worker’s wage. One in four of the CEOs received bonuses of more than $1 million.
At the top of the pyramid, construction and project developer Leighton’s chief executive Wal King received a package worth $12.8 million. He also collected deferred bonus payments for 1988 and 2000 as well as $7 million in interest, bringing his income up to $35 million. Paid as a wage, King would have received $246,000 a week, compared to the median weekly income of workers of just $660. Three of Leighton’s other senior executives were paid more than $1.5 million each in bonuses alone.
Macquarie Bank CEO Allan Moss received an increase of $5.8 million, bringing his total up to $18.5 million. Of this, $17 million was paid as bonuses. Macquarie Bank investment group chief Nicholas Moore’s package increased by $6.8 million to $18.2 million. The bank’s executive chairman David Clarke scored $9.2 million.
Investment and “financial engineering” firm Babcock and Brown CEO Phillip Green received $10.3 million, while retailing giant Woolworth’s Roger Corbett got $8.4 million. Burns Philip managing director Ted Degnan was paid $7.7 million and Lend Lease’s CEO Greg Clarke received $6.5 million.
Other banking chiefs also did well. Westpac’s David Morgan pulled in $7.4 million, ANZ CEO John McFarlane got $6.9 million, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s former CEO David Murray made $5.4 million. National Australia Bank (NAB) chief John Stewart had just renewed his contract for an extra $500,000, bringing his package up to $6.43 million.
Significantly, these banks have eliminated many thousands of jobs in recent years. NAB is currently slashing 4,000 jobs from its global organisation.
Likewise, Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon received a package worth over $6.4 million. Last year, Qantas relocated cabin crew jobs overseas to reduce its wages bill and threatened the jobs of maintenance workers unless they made substantial concessions to cut costs.
Newly appointed Telstra CEO Sol Trugillo negotiated an annual base salary worth $3 million plus up to $10 million a year in “performance” bonuses. Trugillo has already announced he will axe 12,000 jobs.
Generous side benefits
While employers rail against workers’ claims for travelling allowances or shift penalties, there is no end of “fringe benefits” for company executives. Despite drawing enormous pay cheques, they insist on a whole range of extras.
Frank Lowy, chairman of multi-million dollar property firm Westfield, was entitled to 75 hours a year private use of the company’s aircraft, a perk worth $365,805. Even Qantas non-executive director James Packer obtained $4,775 worth of travel benefits. Packer has just inherited his billionaire father’s media empire. Kerry Packer left behind an estimated personal fortune of $7 billion.
Coles Myer executives got free tax planning while non-executive directors received $5,825 a year to cover home-office costs—almost a quarter of the minimum wage of $25,000 a year. Myer division head Dawn Roberson was entitled to three business-class return airfares to the US every year for herself and her dependents. Kmart chief Larry Davis was entitled to six business-class airfares annually. As a matter of course, top executives at Telstra enjoyed free internet services, line rental and mobile phones.
Most senior executives are provided with cars for personal use, with free petrol. However, for some, like Publishing and Broadcasting chief executive John Alexandra, the car comes with a driver. Along with other benefits, CSR chief Alex Brennan received $42,275 in “spouse travel expenses, accommodation and corporate hospitality”.
Burswood Casino CEO David Courtney received “complimentary privileges” at Crown and Burswood Casinos and annual return fares for himself and his family between Melbourne and Perth. Fosters directors got free tickets to entertainment and sporting events worth thousands of dollars, many enjoying the luxury of private boxes. To enhance the experience, they received large quantities of free wine, beer and other beverages.
Double standards also apply when it comes to severance pay. Retrenched workers are paid a pittance for years of service or robbed of their entitlements altogether when companies go bankrupt or relocate. Yet millions of dollars are given to departing senior executives, including many who presided over company failures. Many retiring executives are also retained as consultants on large retainers.
Departing Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski received a $5 million payout, plus shares worth $1.96 million, while NAB CEO Frank Cicutto received $14 million. CBA CEO David Murray’s golden handshake was worth $25 million, and Colonial First State CEO Chris Cuffe received $32 million.
Coles Myers chief Steven Cain got a payout worth $4.6 million after working for the company for just six months. Woolworths chief Roger Corbett will get a $3 million when he retires this year and a $3 million five-star consultancy deal with the company.
Some executives receive hefty retention payments—now dubbed “golden handcuffs”—to encourage them to stay on after their contract expires.
Publisher John Fairfax Holdings offered its chief operating officer Brian Evans $500,000 to stay around last year during the transition to a new CEO. Loyalty was in short supply it seems, because Evans declined the offer and became chief executive officer with publishers PMP.
Evans’s new company, which was engaged in restructuring its operations at the time, said it valued Evans for his experience in improving revenue growth at Fairfax through “cost reduction and restructuring”. Last June, he gave management at two Fairfax publications, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, a week to come up with $50 million in cost savings.
One of the largest retention payments was to Wesfarmers former managing director Michael Chaney after his contract expired in 2002. The company handed him $2 million extra a year on top of his $6.1 million package to keep him there until June 2005.
Chaney, president of the Business Council of Australia and chairman of its employment and participation taskforce, is a strident supporter of Prime Minister John Howard’s new draconian industrial relations laws, which will be used to further dismantle workers’ wages, conditions and rights.
Last August Chaney told the media “increased deregulation of industrial relations means greater prosperity”. Given that Chaney defends the salaries paid to executives “as reflecting the world market,” it is not hard to fathom whose prosperity he is referring to.
The new laws include the establishment of a so-called Fair Pay Commission, staffed by government appointees and charged with holding down workers’ wages. The legislation will ensure that executive incomes grow even faster, at the expense of the jobs and
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Chimbu Chuckles.I don't know where it will end. Qantas is a fine well respected company and will not chop its self to death deliberately.
Qantas may be doing well at the moment but to stay at the top end of the pack it has to keep up. Look around, the need for reorganisation is not unique to Qantas. Most of the major airlines are having to do it. BA are at it, Aer Lingus and Iberia have done it, Malaysian is starting. The ones that buried their heads in the sand have come to grief or are on the way, Swissair, Sabena, Alitalia ,Olympic to name a few.SAS is in the mire. Air France is probably playing the hidden subsidy game, that being the french way. The Americans have the dubious protection of Chapter 11, which gives them advantages over their competitors, otherwise they would be finished.To get out of bankruptcy they are having to reorganise. Mergers are happening for protection..
All the signs are there, to survive you have to do it.The best reorganisation is achieved when everyone cooperates and gets involved, that way everyone gets a bit more than they would if it is done through confrontation. Confrontation costs money, if ten million is lost through non cooperation it is just ten million to add to the list of savings that have to be made during the reorganisation..
Funnily enough it seems to me that the opportunities for expansion in the airline industry have never been higher but if your cost base is high you can't afford to do it.
I deliberately haven,t mentioned fuel because although it is probably the single biggest problem at the moment it is affecting everyone and isn't a problem for Qantas alone.
In conclusion, for all that I have said, I do believe that it will be boom time for all the survivors in a few years time..I think the choice and frequency for air travel will mean that the next generation will think nothing of travelling from one end of the earth to the other for leasure and business.
It won't be a case of where the bloody hell are you because we will be bloody well here..
Qantas may be doing well at the moment but to stay at the top end of the pack it has to keep up. Look around, the need for reorganisation is not unique to Qantas. Most of the major airlines are having to do it. BA are at it, Aer Lingus and Iberia have done it, Malaysian is starting. The ones that buried their heads in the sand have come to grief or are on the way, Swissair, Sabena, Alitalia ,Olympic to name a few.SAS is in the mire. Air France is probably playing the hidden subsidy game, that being the french way. The Americans have the dubious protection of Chapter 11, which gives them advantages over their competitors, otherwise they would be finished.To get out of bankruptcy they are having to reorganise. Mergers are happening for protection..
All the signs are there, to survive you have to do it.The best reorganisation is achieved when everyone cooperates and gets involved, that way everyone gets a bit more than they would if it is done through confrontation. Confrontation costs money, if ten million is lost through non cooperation it is just ten million to add to the list of savings that have to be made during the reorganisation..
Funnily enough it seems to me that the opportunities for expansion in the airline industry have never been higher but if your cost base is high you can't afford to do it.
I deliberately haven,t mentioned fuel because although it is probably the single biggest problem at the moment it is affecting everyone and isn't a problem for Qantas alone.
In conclusion, for all that I have said, I do believe that it will be boom time for all the survivors in a few years time..I think the choice and frequency for air travel will mean that the next generation will think nothing of travelling from one end of the earth to the other for leasure and business.
It won't be a case of where the bloody hell are you because we will be bloody well here..
Grandpa Aerotart
Sorry 1DC but I have actually seen/experienced beancounters chopping a highly profitable company to death on the alter of economic theory...outsourcing as a matter of fact.
Take something that makes money (LOTS in the last case I experienced first hand as CP), make it look like it loses money and then try and outsource...result? Everyone out of work, company closed and then outsource provider doesn't provide.
And this was not some marginal little company run by morons...well they were morons but that is besides the point...it was a 200million ++/annum multinational.
It is exactly the sort of pain loyal employees should never have to experience...pointless pain!!!!
If you think the excesses of the post above can go on much longer without a BIG swing back to comprehensive union membership and crippling strike action I think you are mistaken...I think these IR laws will bite Howard and his CEO mates very badly.
Take something that makes money (LOTS in the last case I experienced first hand as CP), make it look like it loses money and then try and outsource...result? Everyone out of work, company closed and then outsource provider doesn't provide.
And this was not some marginal little company run by morons...well they were morons but that is besides the point...it was a 200million ++/annum multinational.
It is exactly the sort of pain loyal employees should never have to experience...pointless pain!!!!
If you think the excesses of the post above can go on much longer without a BIG swing back to comprehensive union membership and crippling strike action I think you are mistaken...I think these IR laws will bite Howard and his CEO mates very badly.
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Just to highlight previous posts points about slash and burn being a ceo's favourite money making tool, QF is closing Sydney 747 Heavy maintenance and relocating it to a labour hire staffed facility that is less efficient.
Reduces staff numbers by 480. No attempts were made to increase efficiency in anyway what so ever. There was no Lean Sigma exercises, no jetsmart implentation, no employee consultation on how to work better.
Just months and months of "if you guys don't perform your jobs will be gone".
Turns out that it wouldn't have mattered what our output was, we were gone anyway. Negotiations had been going on with Forstaff for ages. They negotiated a "flexible" roster which was recommended by the ALAEA (strangely enough) and took the jobs of highly skilled world class Qantas employees and gave them to a labour hire company with a high amount of immigrants on work visas.
All to the applause of the Federal government because they saved "the work from going overseas".
I can see Geoff's bonus already.
Reduces staff numbers by 480. No attempts were made to increase efficiency in anyway what so ever. There was no Lean Sigma exercises, no jetsmart implentation, no employee consultation on how to work better.
Just months and months of "if you guys don't perform your jobs will be gone".
Turns out that it wouldn't have mattered what our output was, we were gone anyway. Negotiations had been going on with Forstaff for ages. They negotiated a "flexible" roster which was recommended by the ALAEA (strangely enough) and took the jobs of highly skilled world class Qantas employees and gave them to a labour hire company with a high amount of immigrants on work visas.
All to the applause of the Federal government because they saved "the work from going overseas".
I can see Geoff's bonus already.
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It is a scary feeling. I am glad I am not alone. I worry for the future or it. In a previous life I looked at the way a company operates. To analyse a company one conisdered all facets of the operation, the way the company core was structured. That was the trunk so to speak..... For the life of me I do not understand how engineering cannot be a core. After all an airline exists to fly people in their aircraft from A to B, safely and as close to schedule as possible....
What is left? Huge administration. Isn't it scary that the mainstream media makes no comment on the gutting of what Qantas is. All the slick marketing in the world won't replace the excellent reputation built up by engineering. No amount of slick marketing will cover up a loss of an airframe. Dixon likes to state we don't have a "monopoly on maintaining or flying aircraft safely"...Like with most things he is sadly out of touch...
Our passengers seem to think otherwise. As most experienced players in the industry know these things do save money short term but cost lives longer term
What is left? Huge administration. Isn't it scary that the mainstream media makes no comment on the gutting of what Qantas is. All the slick marketing in the world won't replace the excellent reputation built up by engineering. No amount of slick marketing will cover up a loss of an airframe. Dixon likes to state we don't have a "monopoly on maintaining or flying aircraft safely"...Like with most things he is sadly out of touch...
Our passengers seem to think otherwise. As most experienced players in the industry know these things do save money short term but cost lives longer term
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Has Dixon let another cat out of the bag?
Too right he has. Somewhere in these posts he is quoted as saying something to the effect of, "we would have to vacate anyway".
So not only is Sydney HM going, so is the entire QF infrastructure.
Take a look at the Sydney Airport Masterplan. No QF Jetbase. At All.
And is it just coincidence that the Jet Base sign was missing from the main
gate acouple of days ago. Hmmmmmm.
Ciao.
Too right he has. Somewhere in these posts he is quoted as saying something to the effect of, "we would have to vacate anyway".
So not only is Sydney HM going, so is the entire QF infrastructure.
Take a look at the Sydney Airport Masterplan. No QF Jetbase. At All.
And is it just coincidence that the Jet Base sign was missing from the main
gate acouple of days ago. Hmmmmmm.
Ciao.
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lower lobe and keg, I'm not getting involved in peacetime vs wartime accidents etc., but I believe QF did have fatalitites in a flying boat crash on Sydney Harbour many years back, with none other than Capt Brain at the controls.
None in the Mauritius Super Constellation crash though, sorry, incident just as BGK was an incident not an accident.
Good tabling of exec incomes Traffic, obscene as it is. How's Tokyo in mid March?
None in the Mauritius Super Constellation crash though, sorry, incident just as BGK was an incident not an accident.
Good tabling of exec incomes Traffic, obscene as it is. How's Tokyo in mid March?
Last edited by ys120fz; 15th Mar 2006 at 20:23.
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ys120fz I'll say it again...
Originally Posted by Animalclub
Read "Wings of Gold" and the "Balus" trilogy... it's not incedents it's fatal accidents and in peace time. There is even a monument to a QF captain at one of the airstrips in PNG where he was killed.
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This is very much toungue in cheek..... or is it art immitating life.
CEO given massive bonus
Wednesday, 08 March 2006
The head of a key technology business was granted a massive bonus yesterday to recognise his performance in not running the company into the ground. TechnoCorp CEO Warren Blair was rewarded by the board for his “world’s best practice” leadership after not quite driving the company into receivership over the past 12 months.
Image
Blair... a truly world-class screw-up
Blair's bonus is valued at $1.4 million, or 25 per cent of his base pay. On top of this amount, Blair can also expect a 5 per cent Bonus Delivery Bonus. The swag of options he has taken up in the company are also expected to be worth an extra $560,000 after the Techno Corp share price rose 4 cents last week after the market rewarded Blair’s daring, highly original strategy for FY06/07, when he plans to sack most of the workforce and selling key assets in a fire sale to pay creditors.
TechnoCorp Chairman Ryan Kumar explained that to attract business leaders who have a truly world-class ability to maximise the short-term share price while endangering the company’s long-term stability, Technocorp needed to offer them salary packages that are also world-class. “It’s all about global standards, and we really have to splash out to keep in touch with the US on this,” Kumar said.
Kumar said that Blair is also being rewarded for meeting his other stringent performance targets, such as only decreasing market share by 30 per cent and not getting caught paying any kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.
The Chairman denied claims that the board had been too generous to Blair in light of the company’s lacklustre revenue performance. "Let's not forget that these payments are not guaranteed – they’re an incentive. Blair would certainly have missed out on this bonus if he had been even more incompetent,” Kumar said.
“I mean, he would still have received it, but it would certainly have had to be renamed. Maybe something like an Annual Incentivisation Payment or an Executive Remuneration Continuation Bonus."
Kumar and the rest of the TechnoCorp Board will also be receiving a huge bonus for awarding the CEO such an enormous bonus. “Many people have alleged that our tied bonus system leads to inadequate supervision and a conflict of interest, but fortunately they were only shareholders,” he said.
Blair said he was pleased with his income over the previous financial year, but felt it could be still improved. “I’d like to see myself taking home in excess of $10 million next year, and the best way to do that is perform so badly that the Board has to sack me and give me a huge termination bonus,” Blair said. “For a CEO, that’s where the real money is.”
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CEO given massive bonus
Wednesday, 08 March 2006
The head of a key technology business was granted a massive bonus yesterday to recognise his performance in not running the company into the ground. TechnoCorp CEO Warren Blair was rewarded by the board for his “world’s best practice” leadership after not quite driving the company into receivership over the past 12 months.
Image
Blair... a truly world-class screw-up
Blair's bonus is valued at $1.4 million, or 25 per cent of his base pay. On top of this amount, Blair can also expect a 5 per cent Bonus Delivery Bonus. The swag of options he has taken up in the company are also expected to be worth an extra $560,000 after the Techno Corp share price rose 4 cents last week after the market rewarded Blair’s daring, highly original strategy for FY06/07, when he plans to sack most of the workforce and selling key assets in a fire sale to pay creditors.
TechnoCorp Chairman Ryan Kumar explained that to attract business leaders who have a truly world-class ability to maximise the short-term share price while endangering the company’s long-term stability, Technocorp needed to offer them salary packages that are also world-class. “It’s all about global standards, and we really have to splash out to keep in touch with the US on this,” Kumar said.
Kumar said that Blair is also being rewarded for meeting his other stringent performance targets, such as only decreasing market share by 30 per cent and not getting caught paying any kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.
The Chairman denied claims that the board had been too generous to Blair in light of the company’s lacklustre revenue performance. "Let's not forget that these payments are not guaranteed – they’re an incentive. Blair would certainly have missed out on this bonus if he had been even more incompetent,” Kumar said.
“I mean, he would still have received it, but it would certainly have had to be renamed. Maybe something like an Annual Incentivisation Payment or an Executive Remuneration Continuation Bonus."
Kumar and the rest of the TechnoCorp Board will also be receiving a huge bonus for awarding the CEO such an enormous bonus. “Many people have alleged that our tied bonus system leads to inadequate supervision and a conflict of interest, but fortunately they were only shareholders,” he said.
Blair said he was pleased with his income over the previous financial year, but felt it could be still improved. “I’d like to see myself taking home in excess of $10 million next year, and the best way to do that is perform so badly that the Board has to sack me and give me a huge termination bonus,” Blair said. “For a CEO, that’s where the real money is.”
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newsensation, what nobody has said yet is that the mainten ance facilities in China are manufacturer approved. They are using Chinese workers and that's the only difference between having the majors done there or here, or NZ, or anywhere.
Something else nobody has mentioned is that aircraft are built my 98% unskilled labour. It only needs to be signed off by a licensesd engineer.
I bet much of the maintenacne at Qantas is currently done by unlicensed engineers. They may be LAME's, but not all would have done specialist type training, e.g., engines, airframes, radios, etc. Provided it 's signed off by a licensed engineer that['s all that matters.
If these factors are brought intothe argument, the public' s view may be influenced.
Something else nobody has mentioned is that aircraft are built my 98% unskilled labour. It only needs to be signed off by a licensesd engineer.
I bet much of the maintenacne at Qantas is currently done by unlicensed engineers. They may be LAME's, but not all would have done specialist type training, e.g., engines, airframes, radios, etc. Provided it 's signed off by a licensed engineer that['s all that matters.
If these factors are brought intothe argument, the public' s view may be influenced.
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Chimbu from the last post on the previous page. I agree with you, but that won't stop their march down that path.
Managements seem to learnnothing from past experience.
Let's just hope that the pilots have.
Managements seem to learnnothing from past experience.
Let's just hope that the pilots have.
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Chimbu I really hope you are right I would so dearly love to see howard in particular, but all of his cronies bitten badly by this - but we are a collectively pretty stupid nation aren't we, I mean who could fall for "Interest rates will rise under a Labour gov." - The reserve bank of Aus cleared out of Canberra to Syd for fecks sake to distance itself from the pollies - sure some gov policies may cause an interest rate rise, but to have the gaul to come out with such ridiculous blanket statements (AWB Fiasco is another) I mean you really have to beleive that the people you're speaking to have (Aust public) no minds, and it is the pure contempt of we the taxpayer that is really very saddening.........so yes to see it blow up in their faces.............we'll be better off under new IR laws, well I was going to be better off under a GST and I'm not.
Grandpa Aerotart
fliegenmong....yup, the average Oz voter is pretty dumb...just look at the dumbing down of TV to see where the average intellect is going.
And make no mistake...Govt know this...they spend a LOT of tax payer money on experts that tell them exactly how the 'electorate' will react short, medium and long term....long term being the next election...and exactly how to negate any problems and 'steer' the electorate towards the desired democratic outcome.
But I believe, and hope, that the excesses we are experiencing will re unify the work force. For how long will the average worker be asleep to the rhetoric which states that it's ok for managment and Pollies to get HUGE pay rises while at the same time anymore than 3% over 3 years (way less than real inflation) for everyone else will bring the economy to it's knees?
And make no mistake...Govt know this...they spend a LOT of tax payer money on experts that tell them exactly how the 'electorate' will react short, medium and long term....long term being the next election...and exactly how to negate any problems and 'steer' the electorate towards the desired democratic outcome.
But I believe, and hope, that the excesses we are experiencing will re unify the work force. For how long will the average worker be asleep to the rhetoric which states that it's ok for managment and Pollies to get HUGE pay rises while at the same time anymore than 3% over 3 years (way less than real inflation) for everyone else will bring the economy to it's knees?
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CC, huge payrises for pollies have been going for ever; notso long for business heads. So far the workers haven't even whimpered over it, but i haope they will in the future.
Regarding your assessment of the average elector, you 're right on, andwhat a DH he is. And don 't you love the pollies when being questioned about voter opinion/backlash etc. They actually say, with a straight face "the average voter is much more intelligent than we give them credit for". Well that's a heap of bull$hit. The average voter is a grossly stupid individual.
And the TV shows are a good indication of the intellect of joe average.
Regarding your assessment of the average elector, you 're right on, andwhat a DH he is. And don 't you love the pollies when being questioned about voter opinion/backlash etc. They actually say, with a straight face "the average voter is much more intelligent than we give them credit for". Well that's a heap of bull$hit. The average voter is a grossly stupid individual.
And the TV shows are a good indication of the intellect of joe average.
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fliegenmong, I totally agree, and may I add it was the same when we were told that when banking was deregulated it would be better for all of us (i.e. all of us with bank shares LOL).
