The last man who echoed the Republican pablum that you need an experienced businessman to run the country, because they are held accountable? Well, he's gone.
The last woman who did that was Meg Whitman. In California, when she ran for governor. Apparently, you can coast through in political office without consequences, but you are held accountable in the private sector. Or so they said.In September 2011, she was appointed CEO of Hewlett Packard.
Its stock price was hovering around $23 when she took over. In all fairness, it had suffered a decline of about 47 percent (there's that number again!) since the start of 2011.
A year later (November 16, 2012), it is teetering around $13.
The last fiscal quarter saw HP have its losingest quarter with over $8 billion in losses.
This after they spent $13 billion to buy EDP (Perot's old company bought in 2008 by one of the previous CEOs), and announced layoffs for 27,000, or 8% of its workforce. The economic climate for the sector has not been too shabby. IBM, Apple, Cisco have done rather well. Dell, not so much.
So what'll happen to Meg? Well, it is fair to give her more time, but one thing you can be certain of: if she is let go, it'd be because the company is faring far worse than it is today.
Another thing you can be certain of: she'll make a LOT of money. Either way!
So, can we cut the bullshit of "private sector is where people are held accountable" already?
[Update 11/20/2012]
Here's Meg Whitman complaining about a deal she made. Wait, if CEOs are held accountable, shouldn't there be board hearings? Imagine if she had been governing California!
[Update 1/13/2012]
Here's Meg Whitman being penalized for the horrible performance of 2012.
1 comment:
Yeah, I have no idea how people can say that CEO's have accountability with a straight face. Between their actual salaries while they're in charge, and the golden parachutes they're given, it's basically the least accountable position on the planet.
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