The Sikh Geek

The Merrill Lynch CEO, Stan O’Neal, has left his job because of the exposure of the company to bad debts of $7.9 bn and reporting a third quarter loss of $2.3 bn as reported by BBC News Online. Now what do you expect is going to happen to Mr O’Neal? Well, he’s retiring with immediate effect and probably a multi-million pound payoff. Job done, thank you and good bye! It really is a win-win situation being a CEO for a major corporate. If you’re successful, then big bonuses and if you mess up big time, big payoff anyway! Is there no sense that it’s actually success that should be rewarded? I saw recently (…and I can’t remember where), how little Steve Ballmer was actually paid but had good stock options which is fair because if Microsoft do well and make profits then his shares are actually going to be worth something.

The next time you make a mistake (I know we never do !!!), try asking your customer for some more money just to walk away from the mess into the sunset and see how they react??

[update] Read Robert Peston’s (BBC Business Editor) blog on this and then the comments. So, Small Businesses have no business plans or strategies? Well, compared to Merrill Lynch I would say our business strategies are like a masterpiece!