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CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

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Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#351

Post by jarjoura »

refurb wrote: post #265
Quarrelsome wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s easily worth it but is it really? How do we accurately measure CEO performance? We can barely measure developer productivity in any sort of meaningful fashion. Blowing $200m on what is effectively a faith based assessment seems a bit questionable.

I'm pretty a lot of CEO compensation is in options? Company does poorly and they take a massive compensation hit. Seems like incentives are pretty aligned? If Sundar leads a company that goes from being worth $340B to $1,500B today (+$1.2T dollars), him getting $1B of that doesn't seem that out of place?

I'd argue that us rank-and-file employees should receive profit sharing if our company is overperforming.

It's impossible for any one of us to compete for that CEO position on any realistic grounds. So, we're left at the mercy that the board has decided this person deserves this compensation.

A CEO can help guide an organization, but it's everyone under that CEO who pulls all the strings.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#352

Post by jarjoura »

Klinky wrote: post #350
WalterBright wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs turned 90-days-bankruptcy Apple into the wealthiest company in the world.

Why couldn't he just turn NeXT into the wealthiest company in the world? Perhaps you could say that's what he did by getting bought out by Apple, but Ives was an Amelio hire, and hard to say Ives wasn't as pivotal to Apple's future success as Jobs. Jobs takes a lot of the credit, and some of it is due, but there were many other people involved in bringing him back on board & the transition back to profitability/domin…

Well, that's not entirely fair, Jobs was credited for making a huge partnership with Microsoft that saved Apple. That deal would never have happened if any other person in the world tried to make it happen.

It literally had to be Jobs and Gates making that deal, and it worked. Apple got enough money to launch its iMac which made it enough money to then launch its store, which gave it enough money to finally turn real profits.

I know a lot of people were involved in that happening, but Steve Jobs was literally the only person in the world who had the cult following to execute on his vision. Any other leader would have been met with resistance and skepticism every step of the way.

Am I suggesting that SJ should make $200mil for that effort, no, but I am suggesting that if you're making an argument against CEO impact, SJ is probably the worst example as I'm 100% sure that man was the only one who could have turned Apple around.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#353

Post by jarjoura »

satvikpendem wrote: post #244
cudgy wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only you actually knew that he was the reason for that increase in performance.

I do know it because I've also been in places where CEOs essentially destroyed the entire business. Just as absolute power in kings can create despots or benevolent dictators, so too can it occur in the chief executive officer.

Google is overperforming in-spite of its CEO, not because of him. Google hasn't really been doing anything recently other than run on the fumes of its past successes.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#354

Post by refurb »

jarjoura wrote: post #351
refurb wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty a lot of CEO compensation is in options? Company does poorly and they take a massive compensation hit. Seems like incentives are pretty aligned? If Sundar leads a company that goes from being worth $340B to $1,500B today (+$1.2T dollars), him getting $1B of that doesn't seem that out of place?

I'd argue that us rank-and-file employees should receive profit sharing if our company is overperforming. It's impossible for any one of us to compete for that CEO position on any realistic grounds. So, we're left at the mercy that the board has decided this person deserves this compensation. A CEO can help guide an organization, but it's everyone under that CEO who pulls all the strings.

Plenty of Google "rank-and-file" employees have been made millionaires by profit sharing.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#355

Post by Klinky »

jarjoura wrote: post #352
Klinky wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why couldn't he just turn NeXT into the wealthiest company in the world? Perhaps you could say that's what he did by getting bought out by Apple, but Ives was an Amelio hire, and hard to say Ives wasn't as pivotal to Apple's future success as Jobs. Jobs takes a lot of the credit, and some of it is due, but there were many other people involved in bringing him back on board & the transition back to profitability/domin…

Well, that's not entirely fair, Jobs was credited for making a huge partnership with Microsoft that saved Apple. That deal would never have happened if any other person in the world tried to make it happen. It literally had to be Jobs and Gates making that deal, and it worked. Apple got enough money to launch its iMac which made it enough money to then launch its store, which gave it enough money to finally turn real…

Some of the Microsoft deal was due to the antitrust pressures MSFT was under in the late 90's, seeing Apple go under would've removed any deniability and put them under the microscope.

That said it's hard to argue that Jobs didn't have vision, or wasn't at least able to find people who had vision & talent, even if he was a polarizing figure.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#356

Post by WalterBright »

Klinky wrote: post #350
WalterBright wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs turned 90-days-bankruptcy Apple into the wealthiest company in the world.

Why couldn't he just turn NeXT into the wealthiest company in the world? Perhaps you could say that's what he did by getting bought out by Apple, but Ives was an Amelio hire, and hard to say Ives wasn't as pivotal to Apple's future success as Jobs. Jobs takes a lot of the credit, and some of it is due, but there were many other people involved in bringing him back on board & the transition back to profitability/domin…

> Why couldn't he just turn NeXT into the wealthiest company in the world?

That is a great question. The answer is complicated, but the primary reason is he screwed up. The machine was way too costly for its target market. By then, he'd run out of money. But he'd learned a great deal. He then bought control of Pixar, and turned that from failure into a massive powerhouse. Then he went back to Apple.

There's a book about it, "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs".

Jobs made three fortunes: Apple II, Pixar, and then Apple again. Just one of those would be a spectacular achievement, but he did it 3 times.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#357

Post by rullelito »

somewhereoutth wrote: post #119

Probably we can argue the rights and wrongs of individual cases, but surely now is the time for swinging wealth taxes. Clearly the system has got out of control, and everyday people are suffering while the rich lead gilded lives. 50% on everything over say 2MM, into a sovereign wealth fund. Prison for attempts at evasion. Maybe next year we won't do another 50% on what they have left.

And the justification to take someone's money is that there are other poor people? This is not how you solve a problem.
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