Billy Boy spends - no worries about money

Jack Welch sells Lost Tree Village lots to William, Barbara Weldon
Palm Beach Daily News - Palm Beach,FL,USA
... former chairman and CEO of General Electric, sold two adjacent vacant waterfront lots in North Palm Beach for $8.45 million to William C. Weldon, ...

 

what an asshole. Makes me wish I believed in a hell that he could burn in.

While thousands of his employees just wait to be laid off, he can spend millions on two waterfront lots.

 

Come on boys, get a grip. The guy's running a major corporation - whether or not he's doing a good job is the subject of other posts. I'm sure he'd rather not supervise this major bloodletting, but it's his job. No, I'm no Kool Aid drinker. I could very well be on the outside looking in after this all plays out. However, my guess is that this decision was a tough one to make. However, once it was made, he probably moved on with his life. The issue is, he very likely went through the decision-making process months ago. For us, on the other hand, this is all new - fresh wounds. I only hope that, with time, we can get over it too. Granted, we won't be buying multi-million dollar, shorefront property. But hopefully we'll find a level of happiness on the other side.

 

Well said, however if I were in his shoes I would not cry hardships, then be buying 8 million dollar house. That is just rubbing our noses in his shit. (Just like AIG, GM and all the other scumbag corporations in this country). If this were Europe, he would probably get his ass beat up, or at least fired.

 

8 million dollar LOTS, no house! He's probably planning to build for his retirement. And I'm sure the house will be tens of millions!

 

The question is whether he really is making decisions in the best interests of the Company. Billy is retiring in a year or two. Also, if the pipeline is so bad, and we have to lay off so many people, than why is his compensation so good?

 

How appropriate: Neutron Jack Welch ("eliminate the people and save the buildings") passing the torch to Fat Willy. Neutron Jack got a sweetheart retirement from GE that included so many embarassing post retirement perks that when they came to light during his messy divorce, the outcry from shareholders caused him to give many of them up.

Here's to hoping that Fat Willy gets the cardiac event he so richly deserves as part of his retirement "package"

 

Thank god we're not Europe!!! I agree with your post and what troubles me is J&J is always reminding us as sales and marketing professionals to consider the "optics" of what we do as employees of the company. The question asked of us all the time is, "how would you feel if what you did or said ended up on the cover of the NY Times?"

Weldon is so out of touch with his responsibilities to his employees that its worse than rubbing our noses in shit, it's also making us eat it! I don't care if the decision was a hard one or if it was made months ago as another poster suggested, he should have an ounce of humility or decency here! But, maybe thats whats wrong with J&J... ROTTEN at the core!

 

He has been setting himself up for this for years. First of all, he has ALL of the power at J&J, nobody can challenge him. Big mistake is that he has been allowed to be both CEO and Chairman. In addition, the J&J Board is a bunch of geriatrics, I hope they have oxygen and plenty of wheelchairs for all of these "directors" who have been soaking the J&J system for years. Look at all of the options they exercised and millions they make on Yahoo finance. What is the boards average age.....69? That board is not gonna challenge Billy Boy, just like nobody ever challenged Stalin. What do they know about modern day business? Case in point, during the worst time in J&J history, this board voted to pay Fat Billy the MOST of any pharma exec in the world!

Secondly, Fat Billy surrounds himself with a bunch of inexperienced "yes men/women" who are robots and drink his koolaid. Billy killed off all the talent-real smart people who could elevate the level of expertise at the company and could relate to people and actually like people. He "dumbed down" the corporation and when it comes to understanding science and leading people, this guy is DUMB! Unfortunately, he is smart at building power, creating fear, manipulating and surrounding himself with robots and people who tell him what he wants to hear. His imprint will continue to haunt J&J for decades after he is gone. He laid the groundwork.

There are no checks and balances at J&J. He is accountable to nobody, but to his big fat paycheck and how he will spend it. This is indeed a tragic business case.

 

"...because a few business leaders both talked and practiced nonsense, private enterprise is in disgrace with one part of the public and on probation with the rest. Americans still rely on business to provide shoes, movies, lipstick, automobiles, and countless other things. They even are proud of these products, boasting about them to friends or to people of other nations. Yet the very ones who buy and boast no longer trust business to do its job well, at a reasonable profit, and with justice for everyone."

Robert Wood Johnson, "Or Forfeit Freedom", 1947

 

Amen! So True! Mr. Johnson knew what the bums would do to his families' business...............it has come full circle. Throw the bums out, bring in decent business leaders who have morals and values and care about doing what is right. J&J has truly lost its way, clean house!

 

Don't be a fool.

It might have been a though decision to acknowledge that the company's laborious and incoherent management of its finances is a disgrace, and promotes waste and inefficiency on a grand scale.

It might have been a though decision to admit that J&J's IT policy is a pathetic failure and that not a minute should be lost to remove a notoriously incompetent CIO and her sidekicks.

It might have been a though decision to accept his personal responsibility for our deeply rotten management culture, which keeps the heads of our supposed leaders trapped in alternate reality and rewards them for peddling outrageous nonsense with a straight face.

Instead, Weldon took the easy way out -- putting the burden of his crass mismanagement of the company once more on the shoulders of its employees.

He gets paid millions to run this company. Most of us can think of better plans over a glass of beer.

 

That is right my minions, I'm going to leave soon, and need warm weather and the salty smell of the ocean breeze. Who the hell wants to retire in New Jersey? Please continue to slave away, as I consider more layoffs. Your hard work supports my extravagant lifestyle. If not for me, then do it for the Credo. Gorsky will take good care of all of you.

 

This is simply another illustration of how the "equity culture" corrupted all corporate management. Who is to blame when upper management gets richer than kings? Shareholders. As long as shareholders thought they were getting rich on capital gains, people like Weldon and Welch could systematically loot the companies they manage. Shareholders turned a blind eye.

Anyone who complains about Weldon getting paid like he's 1000X brighter than the rest of us and still owns JNJ shares is a Fool.

 

You are off the mark. The system is set up for the executive committee and board to bilk the shareholders and everyone else. The issue is that there are so many shareholders, they are so diverse and geographically dispersed, that the odds of them being able to mobilize and rise up to oust these corrupt "leaders" is impossible. We would need a campaign similar to a presidential election, to get enough momentum to take action. The dividend checks are small in scale to really matter that much to each shareholder to put forth so much effort. As for huge funds that own shares, as long as they are getting what they need from a % standpoint, then they can't say anything because it will make them look incompetent.

Also, about 30% of the American population vote, so what can we expect from shareholder base? History has taught us that people take action and rise up unfortunately, after wars, mass death, and societal destruction. What are the chances that J&J can change that? Who knows, maybe history is on our side and people will start to rise up and demand change. In our country, we try to teach values and character to every young child at home and in school. The hope is that these teachings can overcome the gaps in the system as explained above. Unfortunately, we have senior management at J&J that doesn't have values, nor character. Nobody will stake their career and future fortunes on stopping the corruption. They are greedy and out for themselves. Sad, but true.

 

"Philosophers sometimes ring the bell, and Adam Smith was one who did so. His book voiced long-suppressed resentments, dignified erupting ambitions, and fired brilliant followers. Spurred by the Industrial Revolution, these enthusiasts framed a code of business freedom that bordered on nihilism. Freedom of trade, freedom of contract, freedom of competition; freedom for laws of supply and demand, without interference from government or organized social groups. This, in turn, meant freedom to cut wages, increase hours, and dictate conditions of work. Freedom, that is, for those who could hold It -- and let God pity those who could not!

Even that proviso was erased by Herbert Spencer, who welded Smith's economics to Darwin's theory of natural selection. The result was a system of savage brutality disguised by the terminology of science. It became popular in Europe; in America it won such acceptance as no philosophic system had ever achieved before. It made capital of native doctrines, and to men already battling for wealth it gave authority for competition as ruthless and impersonal as that waged by weeds and wild beasts. It also justified exploitation, made severity a prerequisite of progress, and dignified greed as part of the struggle for existence. Poverty was the normal result of weakness, while riches ,became evidence of fitness to survive."

Robert Wood Johnson, "Or Forfeit Freedom", 1947

 

what we are experiencing at JnJ and corporate America is the collapse of the American system of unregulated free market which has become totally warped and corrupted during the last decade.

Basically, pure greed and selfishness runs most American corporations today and has pretty much destroyed these American icons! Top management is all out for themselves trying to enrich their wallets as much as possible in the short run. Because they know that the system is unsustainable and their days are numbered.

The whole idea of American corporations has to be dramatically altered to be of any relevancy in the future. We are witnessing the historical debacle and pillaging of the many by the few elite.

If we look at history, this has happened before and it caused a huge transformation after the dust had settled (i.e. French revolution, 1930 depression, etc).

 

I am praying for the day when Alex Gorsky takes the big seat. He is a gifted leader and, like Obama, will inherit a mess that will take years to clean up but he is the right person, the only person to get the job done. How much longer is Alex's no compete clause with Novartis? Should be ending soon!

 

Couldn't have said it better. CEOs should forfeit all bonuses if company goals are not met and that includes lack of pipeline and restructures. You should not be able to take a dime when others are losing thier livelihood because of the poor decisions you made or were made on your clock.

However, in the age of obamanation, that is the norm. Impose liabilities on others while you the president can spend lavishly and take your pile for your own rainy day. Weldon is just as selfish and sneaky as obama.

 

By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW
Special to the Daily News

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

John F. "Jack" Welch Jr., former chairman and CEO of General Electric, sold two adjacent vacant waterfront lots in North Palm Beach for $8.45 million to William C. Weldon, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, and his wife, Barbara D. Weldon, of New Hope, Pa., according to a warranty deed filed Monday.