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What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

jayshah.me

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Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#71

Post by throwaway34123 »

Can't help but resent the interviewee. Is that only because of my stereotypes? Stuff like

"I’ll fly out the day before the meeting – most often commercial and occasionally private – and have a dinner the night before with the board and CEO."

"You know Jay, at this level – it’s the White House."

sounds like a hollywood celebrity boasting with his gold plated bathroom. Or Trump flexing his huge nuclear button.

"And if a board member isn’t performing well, we get rid of them."

He could've also just said that the the board will get of any low performer. This line reads like he thinks he will never be the one gotten rid of. He's of course always among the high performers who get rid of underperforming weaklings.

I mean, maybe you really need people like that to do this job. Or is it just that only the less self-conscious people manage to get there? It's a sad world either way.

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#72

Post by rb808 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #66
rb808 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally I love comcast. 150mbps cable, cheap price, no outages, free hbo, X1 remote rocks. Pricing is a bit annoying (paying extra for HD) but is a great product. Just thought I'd mention it because it gets too much hate.

I'm guessing you have FiOS and/or at least one other wireline broadband provider in your area. Comcast is ludicrously expensive in my neighborhood where they are the sole broadband option. It's so bad the city council is looking seriously at muni fiber.

Yes, most people are on FiOS in my area so comcast tries hard.

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#73

Post by qntty »

dang wrote: post #68
qntty wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Das Kaptial

You've posted quite a few unsubstantive and/or uncivil comments. We ban accounts that do that, so would you please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and clean up your act?

Do I need to point out the irony of the incivility of telling someone to "clean up your act" in a comment complaining about incivility?

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#74

Post by fjsolwmv »

aynsof wrote: post #13
georgeecollins wrote: post #4

This is interesting but a bit self-serving. Imagine going around where you work and interviewing someone about their job: "Is your job easy?" "The days of my job being easy are over. Everyday I work very hard." etc.

Especially when you blame your investors for how hard your job is these days: "[It] used to be that way but its changed in the last ten years because the activists [investors] have gotten more involved." Those darn meddling activists!

That's unfair. He's giving credit to activists for making him do an honest day's work.

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#75

Post by fjsolwmv »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #20
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't mention customer satisfaction because it's not always a priority, shareholder value is. A fantastic example of this is Comcast. It is regularly voted America's most hated corporation in the country, yet because of its unique leverage in the areas that it operates, this poor customer satisfaction rating just doesn't matter. They're still able to satisfy the shareholders.

Exactly. Companies have figured this out long time ago. The customers whose voice matters are not the same group as the customers you are nominally serving. You can see clear examples of that not only with corporations like Comcast, but also in startup economy - often (the way I see it, more often than not), the customers-that-matter are the investors, and not the actual users.

Because in startups, users are a cost center and the investors are paying all the bills til runway runs out

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#76

Post by dang »

qntty wrote: post #73
dang wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've posted quite a few unsubstantive and/or uncivil comments. We ban accounts that do that, so would you please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and clean up your act?

Do I need to point out the irony of the incivility of telling someone to "clean up your act" in a comment complaining about incivility?

It's true that that phrase is a bit harsher than what we usually post. I use it in a somewhat precise situation: when an account's comment history shows that they've been breaking the rules habitually. That's a worse situation than a one-time offence and seems to merit a stronger tone. Also, I've noticed that some people don't get the message unless the volume is turned up that way. It's hard to predict whether a user is that sort, or someone who would respond better to a softer touch. I presume you would be the latter.

If you can think of a better phrasing that I could use that covers the above issues, I'd like to hear it. And if you'd read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and only post in the spirit of this site going forward, I'd appreciate it. Other links to take a look at are https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html and http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html.

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#77

Post by robotresearcher »

chris11 wrote: post #49
robotresearcher wrote: post #33

> You know Jay, at this level – it’s the White House. Everything needs to be clearly documented and written down. I understand from the Pod Save America people that taking notes is usually avoided at the White House, since they are required to be part of the permanent record and can be subpoenaed. Destroying notes is not allowed, so it's best to not take them in the first place. Naturally the current crowd have their…

> Naturally the current crowd have their own ways. The whole situation with Michael Wolff is a little worse than staff just taking notes considering he kind of just kept showing up at the White House and got a couple hundred interviews over half a year.

The link I gave is about Sean Spicer, former press secretary, who apparently kept detailed journals.

Everyone would expect a journalist not employed by the White House to keep notes.

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#78

Post by ggm »

function_seven wrote: post #38
ggm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're 30, your concept of profit is different to when your 60. When you're 60 and considering living on the income from shareholdings in enterprises, you need both length and breadth. 15% next year but it tanks the two after is worse than 7% year on year. Long term profitable enterprises do not asset strip, fail to invest, or destroy the market for a short term gain. These are all things which inside a 5-10 yea…

I don't disagree with anything you wrote. I still won't invest my retirement into a company that doesn't prioritize profitability. I can't. It won't work if I lose money in my 401(k). 15%, 7%. These are positive numbers. They're profit.

Your retirement could include classes which only show a realized ROI on termination, and do not demonstrate profit across their life. Forestry for instance, is almost nothing but cost until 30 years later.

Profitability is inherent in anything which strives to increase value in the wider sense. You shouldn't invest in remediation of the environment directly as a retirement strategy, I agree. its solely cost. But you could chose to invest in a company which ethically contracts to perform the remediation. Now, you are both sides of the equation if (for instance) you live in Love canal, and its remediating the years of toxic waste, you benefit from the health outcome. So, what "cost" will you be prepared to pay in local taxes to fund the company you directly invest in, to earn profit to remediate?

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#79

Post by BrandoElFollito »

forapurpose wrote: post #63
Johnny555 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all comes back to governance and taking care of shareholders. Which explains why companies are like they are -- if the board had a fiduciary responsibility to employees first and shareholders second, maybe workers would be better off.

> if the board had a fiduciary responsibility to employees first and shareholders second I'm under the impression that in Germany, which has a highly productive economy, workers have seats on the board.

They do (one seat), same in France

Re: What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company

#80

Post by TeMPOraL »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #75
TeMPOraL wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Companies have figured this out long time ago. The customers whose voice matters are not the same group as the customers you are nominally serving. You can see clear examples of that not only with corporations like Comcast, but also in startup economy - often (the way I see it, more often than not), the customers-that-matter are the investors, and not the actual users.

Because in startups, users are a cost center and the investors are paying all the bills til runway runs out

That's why when they tell you they care about you as a user, they're lying.
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