Maybe the Fiat company knows something that we haven’t figured out yet — that American workers are just fine, it is just American top management that sucks. But it is ironic that Clint Eastwood first got famous by starring in Italian spaghetti westerns, and now he is creating a stir by doing an ad for Chrysler, which is owned by an Italian company.
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If you haven’t seen “Roger and Me” you need to see it. Top management at many (not all) top companies in this country have much to answer for. The leaders set the objectives. The workers make them realities. If the leaders set stupid objectives the workers work is for nothing. Too much of that has gone on and has been very, very well paid. One more reason to be sure that the top 1% pay their fair share of what it costs to run this country. I’m “middle class” and I pay a 35% tax rate – Mitt Romney says he pays about 13% – think about it. Is there a problem here?
Speaking as an ex-top executive, I can tell you that the core problem in American management is short term focus and too much subservience to the Board and outside investors. Most executives are pretty smart people. They have a job to do, however, and the people that set the strategic framework and key objectives are all too often outside Directors and big investors. If the executives don’t do what those people want, they get fired.
I was in one company where we went through 7 CEO’s in 5 years, and finally turned the company around when the Board was so desperate that they let us, the people that actually understood the business, manage it. If more executives were candid with their Boards, and more Boards let the executive team run the company, it would be a better. That said, the biggest problem is the focus on this month/this quarter profits and a fialure to play for the long term – where all the big rewards exist.