The three auto company CEOs each flew from Detroit to Washington this week IN PRIVATE JETS. Three private jets.
About $20,000 EACH instead of first class air fare for maybe a grand apiece.
First contingency for any federal rescue money, their resignations.
I realize appearances count, maybe more when you have your hand out; but the cost-benefit of business jets is easily demonstrated by the cost per-hour of a CEO and whether you want him standing in line to check in, or you want him on the phone doing business.
And after reading some other posts, I did some reading, and I have to say the new CEO of GM has produced quite a turn-around in the product line.
Their primary responsibility right now is to get the cash to keep the company alive. Appearances do count. And it’s only a one hour flight.
Wagoner has been CEO at GM for eight years. I’m not quite sure that constitutes a “new CEO.” What do you mean Emmett?
Even if appearances count, this is silly. They did not come to DC alone. They came with a flock of lawyers and PR folks. They were, no doubt, preparing for their testimony the whole way. Divide the cost by the number of people on the plane and by the efficiency (no lawyers billing to wait in the airport) and it starts to look pretty reasonable.
People being paid millions of dollars to run multi-billion dollar enterprises should not have to waste time sitting in an airport (potentially missing testimony if the flight is delayed) just to satisfy congress. They should, however, not run mismanage their businesses into the ground.
I understand the cost benefit of private jets, especially with the current challenges involved in flying commercial. Upper-level execs can’t afford to waste an entire day for every three-hour flight. When I worked in advertising, it was common for me to have to be on-site for one of our biggest clients, and they often flew me (and various members of our team) back and forth in one of their jets. The amount of work we got done during those flights was staggering.
Having said that!
At this time, appearances are everything, and in my opinion, you have to be pretty damn ignorant/out of touch (and/or pretty entitled?) not to behave accordingly. Especially when you’re walking around with your hand out.
They couldn’t have at least jet-pooled, ferf*cksake?
It’s not corporate jets I object to. It’s that in this instance the Big Three CEOs revealed once again their obtuseness.
Witness this from The Washington Post — Flying From Detroit on Corporate Jets, Auto Executives Ask Washington for Handouts.