5 ms·

If the CEO made $0, what would the impact on Mozilla’s balance sheet be? Hint: not significant

tombert 2y ago
Probably not very significant, though it's always frustrating when you read about mass layoffs at these corporations, only to see that the executives are all still getting raises and bonuses.
- DrBenCarson 2y ago
  Emotional frustration yes totally understandable But from a strictly business standpoint, it’s a bit of an absurd position
  - spwa4 2y ago
    Business used to consider it equally important that employees, customers and shareholders were all happy. Frankly, it is easy to see that on the level of an entire economy, unless all 3 are happy, disasters are unavoidable. But now every company thinks they can force everything on customers (idiotic ideas like "self-care"), the government, or even just the environment, usually doing enormous damage for 1/100th of that damage in gains. At least we can rest assured of one thing: this trend WILL end. Through rational thinking? Through tears? Through violence? Through total catastrophe? That's the question. But end it will. Guaranteed.
nickthegreek 2y ago
We should probably up it another 7 million then.
hagbard_c 2y ago
If the store clerk took home some of the supplies, what would the impact on the company's balance sheet be? Not significant but she'd be setting the wrong example by doing so. If the CEO of a non-profit insists on "pay equity" with her for-profit equivalents she should look for a job in a for-profit, not leach dry the non-profit. Enough of the bullshit with overpaid and underperforming Mozilla CEOs, time for a real change there. I propose Mozilla creates a DOME department - Dept. of Mozilla Efficiency - which goes through the organisation, top to bottom. Make Mozilla concentrate on its core tasks again, i.e. creating and maintaining browsers to serve as bulwark against the Blink-Webkit duopoly. More developers, fewer executives, more releases, fewer distractions, Make Mozilla Great Again!
- tredre3 2y ago
  The CEO receiving a salary that was agreed upon through negotiation is very different from shoplifting and I hope that you can see that and come up with a better analogy.
  - tombert 2y ago
    It's different, I don't think they're claiming that it's directly equivalent, but they were responding to the claim that "7 million isn't significant in the grand scheme of things", and they're arguing that "just because it might not be a significant number doesn't necessarily mean we just let it slide". I don't think anyone is accusing the Mozilla CEO of "stealing" the money.
    - DrBenCarson 2y ago
      Any company looking to hire a CEO will have to pay market rates. Those market rates are not make-or-break expenses for the vast majority of companies
      - hagbard_c 2y ago
        Now there's another sector of society ripe for a shake-up by DoBE - Dept. of Business Efficiency - which has as a stated mission to rid the business world of the parasites is has picked up in the last century. From overpaid CEOs to overpaid corporate lawyers, scrape 'm off just like you'd scrape the barnacles off your vessel's hull after having been at sea for an extended period. While a business needs leadership and legal support it does not need to lend itself to supporting the bloated class of parasites which has grown to be the norm for some of those functions. The way to go at this without breaking incentives for people to start new businesses won't be easy and it won't be by way of redistribution like socialists (etc.) are so fond of. The best way is most likely to change societal norms so that it will no longer be seen as acceptable for a company to have a CEO (or CFO or COO or CxO) hauling in more than, say, 24 times the average pay in his or her company. That '24' number just fell out of my sleeve and probably needs some more thought but the gist is clear. In 2023 the average pay ratio for CEO to average was somewhere around 270 to 1 and that ratio has been going up for decades. By now you'd think that CEOs would have priced themselves out of the market but that does not happen. I suspect this has a lot to do with the makeup of the boards of directors which decide over CEO pay being manned by other (aspiring) CEOs who as a group have an interest in keeping up CxO pay. Yes, this is a difficult problem to really solve but also yes, I think it is a problem and I think it is worth solving it.
kbelder 2y ago
If that had an impact on the CEO's behavior, the resulting 2nd order change might be significant.

Probably not very significant, though it's always frustrating when you read about mass layoffs at these corporations, only to see that the executives are all still getting raises and bonuses.

DrBenCarson 2y ago
Emotional frustration yes totally understandable But from a strictly business standpoint, it’s a bit of an absurd position
- spwa4 2y ago
  Business used to consider it equally important that employees, customers and shareholders were all happy. Frankly, it is easy to see that on the level of an entire economy, unless all 3 are happy, disasters are unavoidable. But now every company thinks they can force everything on customers (idiotic ideas like "self-care"), the government, or even just the environment, usually doing enormous damage for 1/100th of that damage in gains. At least we can rest assured of one thing: this trend WILL end. Through rational thinking? Through tears? Through violence? Through total catastrophe? That's the question. But end it will. Guaranteed.

nickthegreek 2y ago

We should probably up it another 7 million then.

hagbard_c 2y ago

If the store clerk took home some of the supplies, what would the impact on the company's balance sheet be? Not significant but she'd be setting the wrong example by doing so. If the CEO of a non-profit insists on "pay equity" with her for-profit equivalents she should look for a job in a for-profit, not leach dry the non-profit. Enough of the bullshit with overpaid and underperforming Mozilla CEOs, time for a real change there. I propose Mozilla creates a DOME department - Dept. of Mozilla Efficiency - which goes through the organisation, top to bottom. Make Mozilla concentrate on its core tasks again, i.e. creating and maintaining browsers to serve as bulwark against the Blink-Webkit duopoly. More developers, fewer executives, more releases, fewer distractions, Make Mozilla Great Again!

tredre3 2y ago
The CEO receiving a salary that was agreed upon through negotiation is very different from shoplifting and I hope that you can see that and come up with a better analogy.
- tombert 2y ago
  It's different, I don't think they're claiming that it's directly equivalent, but they were responding to the claim that "7 million isn't significant in the grand scheme of things", and they're arguing that "just because it might not be a significant number doesn't necessarily mean we just let it slide". I don't think anyone is accusing the Mozilla CEO of "stealing" the money.
  - DrBenCarson 2y ago
    Any company looking to hire a CEO will have to pay market rates. Those market rates are not make-or-break expenses for the vast majority of companies
    - hagbard_c 2y ago
      Now there's another sector of society ripe for a shake-up by DoBE - Dept. of Business Efficiency - which has as a stated mission to rid the business world of the parasites is has picked up in the last century. From overpaid CEOs to overpaid corporate lawyers, scrape 'm off just like you'd scrape the barnacles off your vessel's hull after having been at sea for an extended period. While a business needs leadership and legal support it does not need to lend itself to supporting the bloated class of parasites which has grown to be the norm for some of those functions. The way to go at this without breaking incentives for people to start new businesses won't be easy and it won't be by way of redistribution like socialists (etc.) are so fond of. The best way is most likely to change societal norms so that it will no longer be seen as acceptable for a company to have a CEO (or CFO or COO or CxO) hauling in more than, say, 24 times the average pay in his or her company. That '24' number just fell out of my sleeve and probably needs some more thought but the gist is clear. In 2023 the average pay ratio for CEO to average was somewhere around 270 to 1 and that ratio has been going up for decades. By now you'd think that CEOs would have priced themselves out of the market but that does not happen. I suspect this has a lot to do with the makeup of the boards of directors which decide over CEO pay being manned by other (aspiring) CEOs who as a group have an interest in keeping up CxO pay. Yes, this is a difficult problem to really solve but also yes, I think it is a problem and I think it is worth solving it.

kbelder 2y ago

If that had an impact on the CEO's behavior, the resulting 2nd order change might be significant.