News

23 May 2012

Big Co Management, Big balls?

CX is a sucker for disaster tales, and the theatre of the daily business news is always fertile.

Exit the guy in charge of Boral, the building conglomerate in Australia. He (Mark Selway, lawyers please direct communications to our new law firm, Sue Grabbit and Runn) was slayed in the media today for ‘micro managing’ and ‘anger’ issues. There were tales of demanding that staff leave their desks tidy and clear before they dare to go home at night.

So WTF? But woah, young AV or entertainment backstage worker, for the management savant walks amongst us!

Gentle, gentle, Gollum. Remember if you will, the PREVIOUS incarnation at Staging Connections Limited, where anything with a pulse and a balance sheet was ripe for acquisition in 2006.

This is but a short posting, to alert us all to what the boss at the National Australia Bank said this week:  Referring to the tendency for new chief executives to take big write-offs when they are appointed, Mr Clyne said: ”There is always this testosterone [fuelled] view that they should clear the decks. The shareholders never get that money back.”

He means, we have a company, we hire a man, we get a Boral dude like Mr Selway. (Or Mr. Staging Connections circa 2006 ….. Buy Bytecraft at 42 million and it is sold for around $17m  last year. Get the idea?)

Watch it happen next time. Learn from history.

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