“You’re a hero, I’m a hero” – this was reportedly the over-estimated message of “Sir” Christopher Gent to Klaus Esser after the unfriendly takeover battle of the more than 110-year-old German Mannesmann by Vodafone had come to an end. In other words: mission accomplished, and around 60m-euro peanuts strewn amongst a few honorable men. Just a small compensation for their self-sacrifice while over-fulfilling their job. And as background lecturer, another big boy of a Hong Kong Telco, led the speech’s melody. Of course, underfeed European industry bosses have to generously fill their pockets in an additional way. This game is being conveyed by reference to comparable US practice. Oops!
Yes, deprived big shoots can have stock options, bonus programs and more. All this additionally to their lousy income. Which practices are we talking about? The scandals around WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, Parmalat, Flowtex, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and more? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the legislation on frauds in business are said to be very tough; and in U.S. company reports, executive salary is transparent. Unlike European practice, where trade legislation is sluggish and salaries belonging to the realm of mystique. So, when gigantic hoaxes can happen under SEC’s supervision, what can we possibly expect in Europe, where corporate governance is mismanaged in many cases?
Getting back to the Mannesmann case, 60 million is a trivial matter. To earn such an amount, where billions aren’t involved but a just a “tad” on the side, this is beyond comprehension for most of us. The average Joe – the small shareholder – is just wondering when Infineon’s CEO and his men receive fine bonuses when the share price climbs a few percent (but has sunk about 80% before). The explanation has the same non-quality: international (means U.S.) practice. Recently, Daimler Chrysler put an emergency stop to share bonuses for the board of directors. Shareholders got highly nervous about the corporation’s outstanding performance, diminishing the market capitalization by about 60%. Or with Deutsche Bank(er), Josef Ackermann, involved in the Mannesmann case as member of the board, who has raised his small compensation last year by only 60% to not more than 11million euro.
Not only the average Joe – who is continuously downsized – is puzzled. Top shots lacking in common sense, arrogant and playing their lonely game of power, have obviously lost the connection to the real world. And concurrently create a huge amount of distrust to the same degree among their employees, in business and society. From a holistic approach, a company as an entity will, in the long-term, have the best possible chances only if people can put trust in those at the top. When they feel treated in a fair way. It is quite interesting to hear that CEO Steven Jobbs works for nothing at the Apple company, and some responsible management teams have also scaled down their own salaries, not only that of the average Joe’s. The clueless or unethical CEOs, CFOs and CIOs had better watch out for the karmatic boomerangs.
