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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H James Morris who wrote (2390)	7/17/2002 3:14:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Last time I checked Forbes Mr. Doerr wasn't running out of money <G>... forbes.com In fact, I read somewhere that he now has his own Gulfstream jet -- why waste time flying commercially when you don't have to ? He and his partner Vinod Khosla became billionaires by investing aggressively and demanding large equity stakes for Kleiner in the boom period...I'll bet they both have taken A LOT off the table but still remain heavily invested in a number of early stage tech firms. What the I-Bankers from Goldman made off the tech boom is kids' stuff compared to what Doerr and Khosla raked in...=)

To: H James Morris who wrote (2390)	7/17/2002 3:42:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Fed chief blasts 'infectious greed' Greenspan takes shots as House legislates stiff penalties for fraud By RICHARD W. STEVENSON AND RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. THE NEW YORK TIMES Wednesday, July 17, 2002 WASHINGTON -- Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, pointed yesterday to a corporate culture blighted by "infectious greed" as the cause of the breakdown in confidence among investors. With political pressure growing and the stock market falling, the House hurriedly passed a measure with criminal fraud penalties that lawmakers said were even tougher than those passed by the Senate. And while the market gained back some ground as Greenspan pronounced the economy fundamentally sound and poised for improvement, the Dow Jones industrial average receded again, closing down 166 points at 8,473.11, bringing its loss over the past seven sessions to more than 900 points. Greenspan's blunt testimony and the rushed effort by House Republicans not to be outdone by Senate Democrats in legislating stiff sentences for corporate wrongdoers were the latest indications of how deeply questions about business integrity are reshaping politics and economic policy. The criminal penalties bill passed yesterday by the House, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, keeps central provisions of the Senate bill. They include the creation of a securities-fraud statute calling for prison time for anyone using a "scheme or artifice" to defraud investors and prison terms for senior corporate executives who "recklessly and knowingly" publish misleading financial statements. In both cases, the House bill calls for longer maximum prison terms: sentences of up to 20 years or 25 years, versus five years or 10 years, for similar infractions, in the Senate bill. However, the House's version of the new securities-fraud statute calls for penalties only for those who "execute" a scheme to defraud investors. The Senate, by contrast, also criminalizes "attempts" to defraud investors. The next test of the political potency of the issue is likely to come in how quickly the House and Senate can work out their differences in approach. While their bills have important differences, the two chambers have come closer to a common view than anyone predicted even a few weeks ago. Investors From small brokerage offices to sprawling trading floors, people who buy and sell stocks have seemingly forgotten about the economy's surprising resilience after Sept. 11. Instead, they and millions of mutual fund investors are asking what else can go wrong in corporate America, and whether anybody -- in Washington, on Wall Street or in executive suites -- has a solution that will help them trust business again. "The question is whether the love affair that Americans had with stocks is dead, or whether they're just adjusting their expectations," said Jeremy Siegel, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of a popular book on the long-term benefits of stock-market investing. "There's a lot of confusion. A lot of people just don't know what to do." Financial advisers say some of the new skepticism is a painful but necessary adjustment to the late 1990s, when many investors came to expect 20 percent annual returns from Wall Street. And Americans' long-term confidence in the economy and the stock market remains far higher than it was at the end of other recent recessions. Conversely, with the Dow having fallen 20 percent since March, many investors say the market itself may soon be a bargain. That attitude, which typically followed every significant drop in the market during the 1990s, could help end the recent slide. As it stands, about 90 percent of individual investors say the stock market will rise over the next year, according to a survey by the Yale School of Management. Harsh words Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan signaled that the central bank was not in any hurry to raise the interest rates it controls from their current low levels. Instead, Greenspan seemed to indicate that the next move in rates would be up, although he did not appear to be warning such a move was imminent. While Greenspan was on Capitol Hill to discuss the economy, he took the opportunity to make his first extensive remarks on the roots of the problems afflicting corporations and the stock market, and he did not pull any punches. Greenspan, who noted that he had served on 15 corporate boards before becoming Fed chairman in 1987, pointed a finger straight at chief executives who put opportunities to cash in on stock options ahead of their responsibilities to their shareholders. "The incentives they created overcame the good judgment of too many corporate managers," said Greenspan, who three years ago began calling for companies to list stock options as an expense on their financial statements. "It is not that humans have become any more greedy than in generations past. It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously." seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: H James Morris who wrote (2390)	7/17/2002 12:43:31 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

How to Attract a World-Class CEO TALENT MONGER By James M. Citrin July 17, 2002 business2.com Remember the talent wars of 1999 and first quarter of 2000? Remember how hundreds of early-stage companies were scouring the market for willing and able chief executive officers? It has been quite a while since those "good old days," when venture capitalists would ask, "What will it take to attract a world-class CEO?" The answer back then was usually an interesting concept, a business plan funded by a name-brand investor, and 5 to 7 percent of the equity. Times have changed, of course. But the search for top executive talent continues. So I thought it would be interesting -- even refreshing -- to talk about what it takes for a startup to attract a strong leader. This isn't an idle exercise. At Spencer Stuart, we're currently conducting a CEO search for a very exciting, early-stage company based in Boston. The company's board worried that it hadn't found enough candidates with proven track records of achieving rapid, profitable growth; building an organization; and (ideally) taking a company public. After reviewing our first series of potential candidates, the board asked us to take a break and come back with answers to an interesting question: What conditions would have to be in place at the company to attract a world-class CEO? We did some of our own thinking on the matter, and we also posed the question to several top-notch CEOs we admire. Then we went back to present our findings to the board. To set the stage, we explained that we had drawn inspiration from Eric Schmidt, who joined then-upstart online search company Google, giving up his position as CEO of software giant Novell. And then there was Meg Whitman -- arguably the best CEO ever recruited to an early-stage company -- who joined eBay after leaving Hasbro. We found that in today's sober market, far beyond a heap of stock options, several concrete conditions must be in place to attract the best of the best. 1. An exciting company name. It is no coincidence that many of the formerly early-stage companies that broke through, especially in the technology sector, have snappy, memorable names. Amazon, eBay, Google, Intuit, Yahoo, and the like all have company names that create an immediate emotional connection that connotes fun, innovation, and freshness. 2. A sound and easy-to-understand business model. Top candidates want to know where the company gets the bulk of its revenue and what will fuel the much-desired "explosive upside." CEO candidates want to see a legitimate opportunity to add significant value for customers by providing products or services that they will pay for. This is important: A smaller, more straightforward business model is better than a larger, more complex one in today's skeptical environment For the rest of this story, including related links, go to: business2.com