Talk about utter stupidity in the PR department.
The heads of the three US auto companies, GM, Ford and Chrysler, trekked to Washington DC last week. They came to beg the taxpayers to bail them out.
And how do they arrive?
In their private company-paid-for jets.
Not one jet ferrying all three. Three private jets. One per company man. Cost: $30,000 per trip per man.
First class flights would have been about $800/per.
What if instead, they had come in a Prius?
Together?
What message would that have sent to Congress and all of us taxpayers?
7 comments :
Because these executives live in a bubble, they do not truly understand their public relations gaffe.
Nobody has ever accused the "Big Three" of understanding or caring about what people want. Their ignorance & arrogance has baffled & devastated we here in Michigan for decades. Everyone on the planet has now seen it...now you know what's really gone wrong in the domestic auto industry.
I couldn't believe this one. How idiotic of them. I heard that when they were asked who here is willing to give up their private jets right now at this moment, none of them raised their hands. They expect a bail out??? What nerve
And how many people out there see the owners of their MLM company traveling in private jets, having massively huge offices with gold faucets in the bathrooms and think that's OK? There are so many MLM company owners who travel this way and pay their reps next to nothing to build their incomes because of their massively huge overhead.
These MLM company owners just TAKE their own bail out by changing the comp plan so the reps make less and they make more.
HHHMMM...makes you think.
Roxanne
The funniest thing is this--we Americans LOVE to see rich people! They are are heroes and we adore them. They are so much smarter and deserving than the rest of us and they are sooooo deserving of the millions of dollars we pay them. But for WHAT??? Why hasn't any of us asked the questions that need to be asked? WHAT IS THEIR VALUE??? Chances are, the Big Three will receive their corporate welfare, but real life human beings in need will not. Shame on all of us!
Kim & all,
You have to wonder if they are smart enough to run these huge corporations, why they didn't leave their jets in the hanger this time.
Reminds me of a verse in Proverbs that goes something like, " the ways of every man seems right in his own heart."
Makes me think of the be, do, have philosophy. These execs have a very strong entitlement attitude.
Allow me to say that I do not believe our Ferderal Government should bail out the auto makers. It will put us yet another step closer to communism. Let them instead reorganize under chapter 11bankruptcy which will be scrutinized by the high courts and help trim away most of the 'fat".
My business is in serious jeopardy due to the current economy, but I am not expecting the feds to bail me out. Never even considered it. Yes, I know I don't employ as many people as the auto industry.
Pardon me from getting on my soap box.
Let them ride horses,
Tom Doiron
Atlanta
http://www.TomDoiron.com
These CEO types belong to a group that have been called "The New Dumb." They, like some professional athletes, are accustomed to being pandered to, being surrounded by "yes" people and, accustomed to getting most anything they want. They are not particularly smart. Most are tall, over six (6) feet. Most are fair skinned sons of tall fathers and tall blond mothers. They met their tall blond wives in college and their kids look just like they do.
They didn't scratch and claw their way up. They were given pass after pass by people their fathers knew and people their college frat brothers fathers knew. It was easy for them to make big money for so long, they saw themselves as smart. More importantly, others mistook them as smart. Now we have the dumb making executive decisions. This problem is rampant across the whole of corporate America, as I see it.
A more important consideration, in my view, than critiquing the behavior of the new dumb is: What are we to think of a company that keeps a Board of Directors in place that grants a CEO such high pay and perks -in the face of unprecedented losses year after year by these companies -tens of Billions of dollars per year.
How competant is, say, the Board of Directors of GMC, if they think their CEO is so cool after such huge losses year after year?
What's up with those people? A 'Root Cause Analysis' would point to the BOD. The CEO is tantamount to a spoiled kid who gets what he demands. The Board is made up of a bunch of Rubes enamoured and blinded by a tall, charismatic joker who most likely has bounced around as often as he wore out his welcome at other companies.
Bob Nardelli comes to mind. He quit GE after being passed over for the No. 1 spot, went to Home Depot. Guided that one into enourmous losses. Was given about $200M when he left and is now at Chrysler.
Why would Chrysler want him? He must have the charisma of PT Barnum, who famously stated, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Congress may as well throw $25 Billions into the wind. The "Big Three" (combined) lost more than that in one year. Does anyone think something will change?
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