re: Perhaps he's simply referring to a return to normalcy by the service providers after they were successfully taken in by the bubble three years ago, i.e., into thinking that the demand would be much larger than it actually is.
A "fundamental shift" back to normalcy? Back to sound business fundamentals? You give these guys way to much credit. "Taken in" by the bubble? "Thinking demand was larger...?" They are paid big bucks not to be "patzers." Not a viable excuse as far as I'm concerned.
If they are no better than the common patzer, why is their compensation 10,000 times the common patzer? "Blaming the market" and magnifying that shift of blame with a phrase like "fundamental shift in the market" means he takes zero responsibility for the 30,000 families he has thrown out on the street. "Oops, I miscalculated; sorry folks."
There is no fundamental shift that just appeared out of nowhere; optical wasn't just found to cause cancer in white rats. The only cancerous white rats are....well, nevermind.
The way that press clip should read is:
"The reason we are cutting more severely and more frequently than most other companies is because I did an inexcusably poor job of managing the company *during* the bubble, and an inexcusably poor job of managing the company *after* the bubble popped."
or, if you like, "I went to the punch bowl 10 times, while most of my peers only went 5 times."
If any or all of the other things you mentioned come as news to these guys, I feel real sorry for the people still remaining at these companies, because those are still, as you said, in a state of flux.
However, I think your post will be a valuable reference for these guys as they prepare their pitch for the compensation committee. |
