Business Insight Zone

To be fair, the tenor of the article that triggered this thought is populist to the point of being obtuse:

Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds
Auto Industry Close to Bankruptcy But They Get Pricey Perk

To a degree, I’m willing to write this off as two journalists looking for a “gotcha!” topic to exploit.*

That said, the CEOs of Chrysler, Ford, and GM could do themselves a big favor by not opening the door to this kind of critique. I actually think that Alan Mulally is doing a good job at Ford, and I have no doubt that Rick Wagoner cares passionately about GM and is working hard to improve it. (Let’s leave Bob Nardelli, who’s a bit thorny for my taste, out of this for now.)

How hard would it be for each of these CEOs to pile into vehicles made by their respective companies and drive from Detroit to Washington? Or fly on a commuter flight, then do the same from Dulles to the Capitol? An easy chance to promote some goodwill, or at least to avoid the kind of writeup you don’t need — the kind of writeups that AIG earned when its executives headed to a resort shortly after Uncle Sam bailed out their company.

No, driving down from Detroit or flying in on American wouldn’t be as comfortable or as time-efficient as taking the corporate jet, but it would have demonstrated some humble good will as these executives undertook what was, at bottom, a mission to beg.

Please, give me other examples: when have you seen individuals or companies do something avoidably stupid in business?

Feel free to anonymize your comments to protect the guilty.

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* And, by the way, using atrocious grammar: “Mulally’s corporate jet is a perk included for both he and his wife . . .” Since you would say “for him” (not “for he”), you should also say “for both him and his wife.” Once upon a time, news organizations had copy editors to catch things like that.

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For more entries in this series, see The Basic Basics — an Omnibus.

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Photo by mattfoster.