Unofficialbmw.com

[markf]

Speech - Mp3 Audio Format


Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America -- America has become a second rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management and executives] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million dollar special? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent. You own the company. That's right, you the stockholder, and you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their, their steak luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents!

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be 'survival of the unfittest.' Well in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies! I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.

[ 03-24-2004: Message edited by: markf ]

[dale]

Hey Mark,

Can you give us more background on this? Sounds like the prelude to shareholders overthrowing the management.

I'm very glad that the Quant family owns over 40% of BMW for example. They have a very vested interested in insuring the company is well run and can take risky moves like the current design changes. It may not be the right thing, I don't want to open up a Bangle Butt war, but the ability to take risks is crucial to the success of any company.

Dale

[charliesmith]

dale,

The above is dialog as spoken by actor Michael Douglas (Mr. Gekko) in the '80's hit movie "Wall Street".

Actually it makes a lot of sense.

Several years ago our former business owners (Northrop/Grumman Aerospace) called an "all hands meeting" at work to discuss how we could streamline to help eliminate unnecessary waste and save money to maximize profits for the shareholders. This meeting was called by our vice-president of personnel, Margo Parker. [Background : Northrop/Grumman treated all it's employees like crap and always blamed the company's dwindling profit margins on us working stiffs.] Long story short, vp Parker was yakking away to the silent but respectful audience of 1,200 - 1,300 employees when one of the working stiffs near the back of the crowd raised his hand to ask a two part question. The audio/visual N/G employee rushed the cordless audience Q&A microphone over to the inquisitive employee. He first asked Ms. Parker how many vice presidents were employed at Northrop/Grumman. Ms. Parker replied that there were 16 vp's in the N/G chain of command. He then asked Ms. Parker why the country needs only one vp but Northrop/Grumman needs 16 vp's. You had to be there, the 1,200+ member crowd broke out in spontaneous applause, complete with cat calls, whistles and high 5's. It was a magic moment. Vp Margo Parker abruptly ended the meeting without responding to the second question. Northrop/Grumman sold us about a year later and Margo retired. The new Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. has been doing great ever since ....... with 3 vp's. Vought even has an efficiency rewards program and annually awards approx. $1,400 to EACH employee. Free money! Six weeks ago us Vought employees received our 3rd annual "Vought Rewards" check! ....... and the savings ideas keep coming in. Did I mention that vp Margo Parker retired?

[JRS]

That's the part I hate about these current outsourcing/offshoring intiatives in major corporations. I understand the reasoning behind the initiatives but the people who enacted the processes tend to move onto other companies or get transferred to other departments. What basically happened ? Well, the stakeholders are gone. How does corporate America gauge whether the initiatives were successful ?

I was outsourced in late-2002. Only 2 of the major outsourcing players remain. There were a roomful to begin with.

The paper-pushing at the 'top' is so thick that no one remembers what the original problem was. But what fixes all of that ? Cash. Throw money at it and it will either die or get spun-off (and then either die or be fruitful than the original company - such as Avaya vs Lucent).

Greed is good but it's one of the 7 deadly sins of my religion (Roman Catholic). So, I use it as a trait to get goals achieved but don't nuture it or live my personal life by it.

It's strictly business.

Anyone watch "Training Day" ? I like the part when Denzel Washington's character drops off the blender to the Mexican Mafia. He leaves his partner with them and they nearly kill him until a wallet falls from his pocket and it happened to belong to the neice of the chief mafia guy. He verified that the undercover cop did help his neice from being gangb*nged. So, he wipes him clean and says a few words... "Sorry, it's just business...".

Greed is what pushed Denzel's character to have his partner killed. Greed is what pushed the Mexican mafia to nearly kill the parnter, but an act of kindness (early in the movie) is what curbed the greed and saved his life.

Gentlemen (and ladies), Greed is good but try not to let it be the ruler of your world.

JRS

[Arizona 85-318i]

As a member of the accounting profession and a former employee of a big four firm, I have conclude from my years of business experience that the majority of CFOs, CEOs, VPs, and Executives do not care about their integrity, companies, or employees. In fact, they are most often concerned about scratching their friend’s backs so that one day the favor will be returned. This has led to a disaster for my profession, where the people in the trench like myself pay the price of the all too greedy and arrogant executives. Jaws would drop at the lack of basic accounting principles these executives either do not understand (to busy counting their cash) or refuse to acknowledge for the sake of smoothing revenue and further lining their pockets. The practice of rewarding incompetence needs to stop, however, this will not change until each one of us reflect on our own integrity, values, and morals and demand that from ourselves and the rest of society.

[bkbrouwer]

quote

Quote:

It's strictly business.

This is actually one of my most hated sayings. It is too often used as a reason to wrong someone and relieve oneself from the guilt. Life supersedes buisness, not the other way around. Lack of morals in buisness = lack of morals in life.

[ 03-26-2004: Message edited by: bkbrouwer ]

[JRS]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bkbrouwer:
Lack of morals in buisness = lack of morals in life.

[ 03-26-2004: Message edited by: bkbrouwer ]

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I concur.

JRS

[Greenhornet84]

JRS,
If I understand this correctly, The Clinton Administration was outraged that saleries for corporate executives were tax deductible as ordinary labor costs are. So they put a limit of tax deductions for any employee at 1 Million. Beyond that, if a corporation wants to pay it's chief executive $8 Million ie Lee Iakoca, Than only $1 Million is charged as charged as a labor cost against taxable income and the remainder would be charged as taxable income.
IMHO this led to the most egerious example of unintended consequences in our time. In lieu of Payroll, stock options were offered. The thinking was that company executives would feel invested in the company. The result was disaster.
Am I wrong?
Mark

[JRS]

Mark,

B I N G O.

The feeling of owning-up to something also led to the 'automatic' vesting of the top Execs. For example, if you're a 15-year tenured Director at one company then accept a CFO position at another - - by accepting the CFO position, you automatically get stock options (which has a minimum 5-year vesting wait period before you can sell them) and you also get an automatic 15-30 year "tenure".... which basically means all of your stock options are now fully vested - - as of Day 1 of your employment as CFO.

Life is rough.

JRS