Thursday, February 5, 2009

One CEO gets it

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson will not acccept his 2008 bonus and will not receive a pay raise for 2009.  Along with 120,000 other MANAGERIAL employees of the company.

Randall had a $4.5 million bonus in 2007, so he's not turning away chump change.  AT&T is doing fairly well and the telecoms industry has not been as hard hit as others in this recession.  Still, AT&T is playing it safe. They know it could get worse and they're preparing for it.  They've cut 12,000 jobs but at the same time are returning some 4,000 outsourced support center positions to America.

So while Jack Welch and his minions cry foul at the idea of a salary cap, Randall Stephenson does something that proves them wrong.  If you want your company to survive, those at the top must show some kind of respect for the reality of the day.  Stepehenson is doing that.

Let's hope others will follow.

5 comments:

skyewriter said...

Wow, a business CEO with a conscience.

Has Hell frozen over?

Aliceson said...

Hooray for Randall Stephenson! He's setting a good example, and hopefully this we be the shape of things to come.

Chris said...

Finally someone with sense...not only that, it's just good business, which we haven't seen a lot of. Yes, let's hope they follow, but let's not hold our breath....

Anonymous said...

There are others. A friend of mine works for a large retailer and the CEO has taken a paycut until he sees the company through this. he has also advised that some minor perks will be taken away (retreats, etc).

If more CEOs had run their companies like these fine men, then the culture of greed would not have brought us here. Being a CEO is not only about making money, it's about building great companies with good people producing a great product or service. It's called pride. To do that you need a real leader. Jack Welch doesn't get that.

Wild Child said...

Now if Congress could have several people decide to be leaders and quit thinking about what am I going to get out of this and say, what is it the people need, we might be further along on the package.