Mr. sh,
I believe Mr. Bauden's comments were directed toward us small fry both in
terms of small shareholders and our voices on this thread. I think he was
understating the case when he compared us to mushrooms being kept in the
dark. If that was all it wouldn't be so bad.
This thread, like the internet as a whole, is viewed with a mixture of
curiosity, fear, suspicion and contempt in the grand tradition of the
relationship between powerful people and mere riff raff. The contemporary
social and political facts show that this attitude may not be in the best
interests of those with or seeking power. The riff raff are tripping up
some pretty powerful people.
The business editor of my local paper seems genuinely irritated when I
phone him to let him know a news release is out because I just learned about
it while online in an internet chat room. For a newspaper man there's something
wrong with that picture...the news should not be coming to him from one of
his readers. It should be the other way around.
When I put myself in the shoes of corporate executives trying to figure out
how they should deal with the new communications reality represented by
the internet I recognize that it's hard to know what to do. An attitude of,
"When in doubt, hesitate." seems to prevail. Front offices must sometimes
regard the world wide web as a potentially boundless collection of loose cannons,
or worse, an irrational thundering herd that once it gets going is impossible
to control. So what to do?
The collective executive wisdom is as old as the hills, marginalize them to
keep them at bay. I think that's what Mr. Bauden was getting at. We have been
marginalized in the eyes of the powerful people shaping the destiny of this company.
If this company understood this information resource and took this thread and
the internet seriously they would have expended the minimal expenditure and
effort required to put the AGM on the internet, with both sound and pictures,
for all of us to participate in. And I agree, that if this company took this
forum seriously it would have jumped at the opportunity of including someone
like, perhaps, Mr. Volquardsen in the search committee. One almost has to ask
the question why the company would not take advantage of the network of contacts
that must exist right here under their very noses.
But noooooooo....Makes you wonder...
Jerard P |
