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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-07-04, Page 22\ � 1 Have Million Of Live In O ri poi Par the true facts about arthritis research; treatment and .control programs in Ontario contact The Arthritis Society at 920 Vonge St,, Suite 420, Toronto M4W 3J7. THE ARTHRITIS SQCIEIY ENTRENCHED MANAGEMENT This year North Americans are reviewing their political leadership, and they will express their approval or disapproval. It is about time that we engage in the same process with the management of our large corporations. The ownership of our large businesses increasingly, is not in the hands of manage- Canada's Business by Bruce Whitestone ment. These owners general- ly avoid controlling manage- ment. If owners do not exer- cise control, who fills that role? At the moment, the answer seems to l$ that management controls itself. The results of this situation are all too predictable. For instance, in the United states total compensation for the chief executives of the 100 largest, publicly owned in- dustrial corporations seems Wilson's Ladies' Wear excessive. The chief execu- tives of those 100 largest cor- porations lastyear received, on average, compensation of just over $1 million. Performance in office of- ten does not correlate with income. Declining ppfits were reported by 55 of the 100 companies in 1982, but the chief executives of nearly half of them received in- creases in compensation. As recently as a decade ago, not a single chief executive re- ported income above $1 mil- lion and relatively few even earned $500,000. In many cases management pay seems to have a momentum unrelated to performance. Members of compensation committees regularly are chosen by the chief executive officers the corporation and, needless to say, are beholden to those who appoint them. These committee members have little knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the company. Often these com- mittees are staffed by pro- fessional or banking firms in which directors or partners serve the company, creating at least a potential conflict of interest. Professional man- agement in big corporations is so firmly entrenched that it cannot be challenged from inside or outside. The wide- spread "public" stockholder now is completely disenfran- chised to the point where management neednot, and to quote management expert Peter Drucker, "does not aim at (maximizing profita- bility), but can run the busi- ness comfortably to perpetu- ate itself in power". It is no wonder then that business leaders do not aggressively modernize their facilities, try to improve production, or fight for a biggershare of SHORTS — T-SHIRTS BATHING SUITS SHORT SLEEVE BLOUSES WONDERBRA ® PLAYTEX KAYSER LINGERIE Special. Savings of up to DRESSES ® SKIRTS 2 & 3 PC. SPORTSWEAR SHORT SLEEVE SWEATERS SUMMER SLACKS We specialize in Misses sizes- 10-20. Ladies' sizes 38-44. Wilson's Ladies' Wear 185 Wallace Ave. N. Listowel 2914511 Crossroads=July 4, 1984—Page 7 Amisimmaimanimainimimmimmume A friend who has just pull- is never conquered. He is al - ed up stakes and settled on a ways a challenge, always derelict farm out back of be- unpredictable. yond tells me that he is now A substitute when there is so far from the madding no man to nag perhaps? Or crowd that he has to keep his when the man in the house own tomcat. Meaning to has now become immune to those who know tomcats, nagging? that he must be nearly over My theory, in brief, is that between the 'doting owner and the cat there is more apt to Ile cold war than genuine affection. And sometimes the cold war can erupt into open battle. Witness the care of the good lady of this province who set out one day last fall with her tomcat to visit one of our better veterinary clinics. The object of the visit was to have an unspeakable operation performed on said tomcat, this in the hope of making him stay at home. But whether said cat un- derstood what was about to happen to him, or whether it was the first time he had ever been in a car, he sud- denly exploded into a rage that sent him tearing around the inside of the can as if each of his nine lives had a devil in it, and by the time his master had driven up to clinic's door, she had a hell of a job getting hold of him. She did get hold of him however, and was just enter- ing the clinic when some- body yelled "There goes your car, m'am! " In the excitement, she had neglected to put her car in park, and horrified to see it. heading down the road straight for two parked cars, she dropped the cat and, be- gan chasing her car. And for reasons known only to himself, the cat be - stances expect to change her gan chasing it too, tripping mind. his owner who tumbled in a Our cat venture on this most undignified manner. A farm didn't last very long small crowd of spectators because we soon discovered had begun to gather as the that. these fancy well -,bred luckless -woman picked her - ca is weren't . nearly so self up and hesitated for 'a .. anxious to progenate as the moment, wondering whether'�- ordinary barn and alley she should continue chasing the horizon. - Which has set me thinking about tomcats — that and the fact that my farm doesn't happen to be quite so far away from civilization, and that some tomcat from outer space was under my bed- room window last night try- ing to seduce one of the lady cats that boards here. Some years ago when the breeding of registered fe- lines was a sideline on this farm, we offered stud ser- vice. Fifty dollars, satisfac- tion guaranteed. And one worried woman called to say that her darling was eager for the great transaction but could I assure her that it would be painless! Now before you accuse this person of being just one more of those women who coddle cats because their husbands are no longer doing their homework, you should know that her concern had some basis in science. That part of the tomcat's anatomy which is absolutely essential to the manufacture of kittens. is eguippe(i. with tiny back- ward sloping spines, much the same as those on a barley awn or a procupine's quill. So the best advice I could of- fer this troubled�ladywas to -warn her ardent pet that once she I,lad let herself sub- mit to the filthy proceedure, she should un der no circum markets. kinds. A litter of three or foutt her, wayward' bus or kill the Companies usually can fi- per year was about all we cat. nance themselves either out could expect from our Per- She went after her car of retained earnings, or by sians. But there was seldom again, kicking -30011141y- at financing" by underwriting" arty argumefit- about price " the cat which insisted upon firms which are obligated to for what we did have to sell „ getting in the way. the management which se- and a ten week old kitten Fortunately the car eased lects them. Management thus is relatively impervious to a concern's need for funds. In other societies such as Japan, business spends a generation trying to develop management. Inasmuch as there is lifetime employ- ment, potential management can be observed and trained for a couple of decades, but we could not use that system here. Effective management ul- timately requires that an in- dividual be able to make de- cisions that get the right things done. The top position requires an ability to man - ''age, to make decisions based on long-term objectives. These qualities cannot be tested except in actually managing. Then the results can be seen. A business must first of all decide its long-term object- ives and be willing to ignore short-term considerations as much as possible. Too many chief executives come from a different industry, and therefore they have an insuf- ficient understanding of the economic pressure points that can determine the com- pany's long-term profit or loss. We should consider 'other alternatives to improve management. Perhaps there should be a compulsory re- view of top management by secret ballot of the share- holders. Business has argued successfully for a secret bal- lot for strike votes and for supervised election of union officials. Maybe that same kind of review process should be instituted for the larger, publicly -owned cor- porations. If we do not make some changes, mediocre manage- ment will continue to per- petuate and reward itself re- gardless of performance or of merit. Our economy will suffer the consequences. ememmilmommilmelosmommila would often fetch more than you could get for a fatted calf. One more proof surely that this crazy world is willing to pay more to be tickled than to eat- And I was never quite able to decide just what it is in fe- lines which makes so many people feel honor bound to pamper them. True, some of the great intellectuals of his- tory seem to have found cats for instance; Thomas Gray, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling — but the people I used to see fussing over their pets in the cat shows were, I think, rarely in that cate- gory. ButI have a sneaking sus- picion that apart from us farmers who must have away from the two that were parked nearby ,and nosed over an embankment; and the furious pursuer, with her cat still tangling her legs, also took a nose dive over the same embankment! The spectators, trying . to smother 'their laughter, finally escorted her into the clinic where, the vets doctor- ed her scrapes and bruises while apologizing for not tak- ing the matter more serious- ly, and outside someone cap- tured the tomcat and lugged him into the clinic. "What would you have us do with him?" the vets ask- ed. "Kill him!" A minute later when the medicine wasn't stinging them to discourage rats and quite so sharp she relented mice, cats are adopted by somewhat. "Castrate him!': that species of human which she said; "but don't give him is born to command,- but an anesthetic!" which would feel quite un- Last I heard the cat sur - comfortable with total sur- vived the operation and both render. he and his mistress were be - A cat, no matter how long ginning to walk normally you have been nagging him, again-. Bennett Sells for Less Ben nett Pontiac • Buich - CMC 810 - 10th St. HANOVER Open. Mon. -Wed, 9 - 6 p.m. Thurs.-Fri. 9 - 9 Sat. 9 • 5 P.m• 364.2140 I CORRECTION In the Shoppers Drug Mart Money Saver Flyer appearing in today's newspaper, Similac 945 mi. cans and 235 ,ml. cans were incorrectly listed as "24 per case". They should have been listed as "a case of 12 cans x 945 ml.", and "a case of 12 cans x 235 mi.". Shoppers Drug Mart sincerely regrets anyinconvenience hIs may have caused our custoniers.