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Corporations pander to the investors. The "glee" someone mentioned is management's expectation that stock prices will soar. This is precisely the kind of management decision that excites the Market. Layoffs increase stock prices. Twenty years ago when the IBM CEO was lauded as a hero (conver of Time Magazine, for instance) for laying off 30,000 workers, I wondered why he was not shamed as a failure. The need to lay off 30,000 workers suggests managerial failure to me.
The job of a CEO is simple, in a way. Any finance professor in the nation will tell you that a CEO's job is to maximize the selling price of a share of common stock. It's a simple as that. So, part of a CEO's vision is toward operations but a substantial part is focused on the financial markets. Operations be damned. Last night, I was reflecting on the double-market game the oil companies get to play. They get to play around with the company's stock price.....and they get to engage in oil futures. They have inventory. Prices change. When the market price for oil rises sharply as it has done lately, the oil companies can be positioned to be the biggest winner in the oil investment game. In addition to the stock price game. Fun. Lucky them.
Getting back to CC: There is no down side to this decision to cause an additional 3400 Americans to be unemployed. It is a corporate "success."
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Man of Carbon Fiber (stronger than steel)
Mocha 1978 911SC. "Coco"
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