 |  Periodic editorials concerning everything from the very worst industry—from an annual report standpoint, that is—to what's wrong with the Fourth Estate. Reporters who can't hit an accuracy with a cannon. |
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| Periodic editorials concerning everything from the very worst industry—from an annual report standpoint, that is—to what's wrong with the Fourth Estate. Reporters who can't hit an accuracy with a cannon. |
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Sid reminisces about some corporate bad guys
I guess I've always had a thing—a negative thing—about men with big feet.* Maybe that's why I took an instant dislike to Walt Disney's Michael Eisner—not only his big feet but his weird sense of humor: He thinks it's funny to mention his kids in the Disney annual report, even though (he writes in his shareholder letter) the kids beg him not to embarrass them. Which, of course, he regularly does—as far back as the mid-90s. A decade and a half ago. What a jerk. So when a couple of Disney directors called on Eisner to resign as CEO, I was gleeful, absolutely ecstatic. I was sad the ouster attempt failed. It did result, though, in Big Foot relinquishing his chairmanship, and agreeing to retire as CEO at year's end—that's this year's end. I can hardly wait. One thing he's consistent about, in addition to embarrassing his kids, is the crummy appearance, and content, of the Disney annual report. The former ABC usher—now you know why he bought the broadcaster!—granted isn't as overpaid as the ousted head of the New York Stock Exchange—whose secretary alone was paid $20,000 a month. Are you believin' that? I commend what Eliot Spitzer, New York State's attorney general, is trying to do, and doing—taking to task executives involved in such outrages. I shared with Spitzer my connection to the NYSE's bossman, no longer there: I wrote more than a decade for Chief Executive, the magazine of corporate chieftains, as you might have guessed. The NYSE agreed to let the magazine hold, on the exchange floor, its annual CEO of the Year awards ceremony. When a Chief Executive columnist—same role I played—referred to Dick Grasso as "a celebrity director" for one NYSE corporation, the diminutive Grasso immediately pulled the plug on the celebration. No CEO of the Year event in his digs, not after he's been maligned. Followed, all too soon, by my article naming the world's 10 best, and 10 worst, annuals. Years back, I named AIG's Maurice R. (Hank) Greenberg as—well, a man with a mammoth ego, as witness the beau coup photos of himself in his annual report. Named his annual as world's worst, as I recall. Now, years later, after the CEO of the Year cancellation at the NYSE, again (strictly by coincidence) I once again named AIG to the list of world's worst annuals. The magazine's advertising folk said it took them years to get back in AIG's good graces. And now, on the heels of the NYSE insult and cancellation of the celebration because the NYSE's head was offended—now Cato goes and does it again. I doubt somewhat that the principals will stick by their story—or, at least, what I remember of it. But when the magazine appeared, my picks for 10 best were there, but the text concerning the 10 worst had been deep-sixed. When I phoned the magazine to see what happened, its editor-in-chief, an admirable man, fresh from his being taken to the woodshed over the NYSE contretemps, now was admonished for "insensitively" doing it again—insulting an advertiser who was wooed back into the fold. I was told the editorial staff took my side of the argument; the ad people went with the money. The publisher—surprise!—went where the $$$$ are. And cancelled my negative words about AIG's Hank Greenberg, among nine other tongue-lashings. By coincidence, NY State's attorney general not only continues to pursue the NYSE robber baron, but he now has—you guessed it, AIG in his sights. Small world, isn't it? * Guess that applies to women with big feet as well, but that's another story. |
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