Someone made Container Store CEO Kip Tindell a bumper sticker that reads GOT WAKE? Tindell keeps it with him all the time. He has a theory that as a leader, your wake, just like a boat’s, is much bigger than you realize. Everything you do - and what you don’t do - impacts the people around you a lot more than you think.
This is just one of the management philosophies Kip Tindell uses to manage his company’s 39-store chain which offers over 10,000 products designed to hold everything from prescription pills to wrapping paper. Read.
The easiest way for a company to get screwed is to get into bed with Apple Computer. Volkswagen AG is the latest company considering this tempting proposition.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG have reportedly met to discuss a possible computer/automobile collaboration. Volkswagen has said that it would like to embed ultra-mobile PCs inside its VWs. And Steve Jobs is planning to be the beneficiary of such ambition.
It looks like Jobs is up to his old self…refusing to play second fiddle to anyone. Early reports say that Jobs is already calling the collaboration with Volkswagen the iCar. The same way Apple managed to keep AT&T’s name off the iPhone, the iCar could turn Volkswagen into another generic manufacturer just happy to be in the same room with an Apple product.
This new partnership would be the latest Apple venture outside of the computer making business in the past year. In September of last year, the company showcased its first set-top box, the AppleTV. Then earlier this year Steve Jobs put the fear of god into mobile phone manufacturers when he released the iPhone.
According to the 14th annual CEO Compensation Survey, top CEOs of major corporations made as much money in one day of work on the job as the average worker made during the entire year in 2006.
According to the survey, big company Chief Execs averaged close to $11 million in total compensation.
The top 386 CEOs in the study also took in perks, such as housing allowances and travel benefits, worth an average of $438,342 in 2006. It would take the average Joe making a minimum wage salary 36 years to earn what CEOs averaged in just perks alone.
The 14th annual survey was released jointly by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. Read.
Acer announced on Monday it plans to purchase Gateway Computer for $710 million in a deal that would overtake rival Lenovo and make them the #3 computer manufacturer behind only Dell and Hewlett-Packard.
The deal however has faced mounting criticism as of late, moving Acer Chairman and CEO JT Wang to make a vow that he will step down if the merger does not succeed.
“The merger will definitely succeed. If it doesn’t … I will resign,” the Chinese-language newspaper, Economic Daily News, quoted Acer CEO J.T. Wang as saying in an interview published Wednesday.
Many are calling the $710 million purchase too expensive, saying Acer should have foregone the deal and continued to grow its U.S. business from the ground up.
Acer is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer and owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taiwan, Acerland. Acer’s product lineup includes desktop and mobile PCs (laptops),as well as PDAs, servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business solutions for business, government, education, and home users.
“The premium paid to Gateway may be too high, and the execution risk of multiple-brand strategy is clearly the key here,” said Vincent Chen, PC industry analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Taipei.
Today, Internet Service Provider, Earthlink announced a major restructuring, saying that the company would be cutting 900 jobs, severely altering their corporate fabric.
In a statement, CEO Rolla P. Huff said, “While we see this as an important first step in unlocking the underlying value that we believe is in our company, we are only eight weeks into the process of repositioning EarthLink for the future.”
A shakeup was certainly in order in light of the company’s poor financial performance over the past year. Second quarter performance was especially dismal with revenues dropping 6%. A major reason for the drop was a major decrease in consumer Internet access revenue, which fell 10.2 percent.
Mr. Huff’s restructuring statement has many analysts believing that he will take the company in a totally new direction. What direction that ends up being, only time will tell.
Symantec CEO John Thompson has a bone to pick with one Microsoft corporation. According to InfoWorld, Thompson is not happy about Microsoft’s decision to come in with low ball pricing when it launched its Windows Live OneCare PC security software last year. Thompson is blaming Microsoft for the current pricing pressure in the consumer security market.
Thompson said Microsoft’s decision last year to offer Windows Live OneCare, which combines firewall, antivirus and backup capabilities, for $49.95 per year for three PCs “clearly recast prior expectations for consumer security technology.” This is in contrast to Symantec’s rival product, Norton 360 which costs $79.99 for three PCs.
“I don’t want to say it was monopolistic, but it looked that way to some of us,” Thompson said. Read.
