From the Herald Tribune,  Friday 5^th January, 2007

There was good news and bad news Wednesday for shareholders of Home Depot. The good news is that Robert Nardelli, the imperious chief executive…….has resigned.  The bad news is that he’ll be taking $210 million worth of compensation with him……. Nardelli may be best known for his shocking performance  at the company’s annual meeting in May, in which…. he restricted shareholder comments to one minute and one question each. When one shareholder asked about perceived conflicts of interest for the board of directors, Nardelli refused to answer, declaring, “this is not the forum in which to address these comments.”  The meeting, f course, was exactly the forum for shareholders to voice concerns about the board of directors.   The IHT hopes that Nardelli’s departure will begin a new era of accountable management for Home Depot.

I don’t know about Home Depot, but it is time that CEO remuneration, not to mention crass arrogance, was brought into line with the real world, boards were independently appointed and given teeth, and the owners of the company (remember them?) took back their companies.  Apologists (hired hacks?) tell us that the “free enterprise” system is self-correcting, that business is intensely competitive, and that we need the best talents in these jobs.   Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor laughing.

In the late 1980s I obtained a further degree at the London Business School.  It was at that time it was already a fact of life that an auction was being held to “attract talent” by bidding up the salaries of top executives in Europe to “compete” with those in the United States.  People at the LBS smirked and called this a big game, a game I which in due course they would win – at the expense of the rest of us.  It is the most under-reported and amazingly successful scam of the last century that has raised top executiove pay to astronomic heights.  CEOs had a vested interest in these bidding wars that all too often simply rob the shareholders, without adding any significant value to their companies.  Enough is enough!