Wed October 14th marks the return of our most frequent guest, Hari Kondabolu! Officially known as the "Fifth Businessman", Hari never fails to deliver the word-goods on the stage-place. Get your tickets here:
Nobody in the company knew that my last day was on the 1st of November 2011. When the news was released to all the staffs, many were shocked that the company founders left so abruptly. I did not prepared any farewell speech but I did prepared a farewell email that was supposed to be sent shortly after the announcement. However, for some reason, this email was never sent. As time passes, I find less reason to send out this email. Below was my email to all my ex-employees that was never sent: Hi Everyone from XX Hydraulic I would like to express my pleasure to have the opportunity to work with all of you. Some of you like SP Ng, Eric, Louis, Tay, Ah Huat and Ah Hin were with us since the first day XX Hydraulic was incorporated in 09.09.1999. As you all know, 1st Nov 2011 is our last day with GXXXX and I would like to bid everyone a farewell and hope all the best in your future endeavor. I am sure that some of you are very curious why we leave GXXXX and what is our future plan. Working
If you behave like this, you deserve to be cursed, reviled, and generally hated. Unfortunately many business leaders are exactly like this, which is why a business tycoon is considered by society as a figure to be loathed. The "this" I refer to is Stephen Elop, Chairman of Nokia being entitled to a $25m payout for the the sale of Nokia's handset business to Microsoft. Nokia, as everybody knows, has been in dire straits for quite some time. In 2010, the Board fired its existing Finnish leaders and brought Stephen Elop, from Microsoft, as the CEO to "rescue" Nokia. Elop abandoned Nokia's operating system Symbian and tied its fortunes to Microsoft by adopting the Windows platform. It did not work and Nokia has continued to slide. During Mr Elop's tenure, Nokia's market capitalisation fell by $ 14 bn - that's the amount Nokia's shareholders have lost. Finally Nokia has decided to sell its handest business to Microsoft for under $ 10 bn. Elop'
On hindsight, the surprise is that it hasn't happened more often. Last week Pierre Wauthier, the Chief Financial Officer of Zurich Insurance, tragically committed suicide . This starkly illustrates the unbelievable pressures top business executives function under. Zurich Insurance is one of the top insurance companies in the world. Recently, it has been going through a bad patch, although by no means disastrous. The CFO is often the one required to stand up before investors to explain results and is invariably the target of criticism and calls to be sacked. The circumstances behind Mr Wauthier's unfortunate demise are not fully clear, but it is inconceivable that work pressures did not play a part. His widow has certainly hinted that Josef Ackermann, the Chairman of Zurich bore some responsibility. Ackermann denied any such thing but promptly resigned as Chairman. Only a certain breed of individuals reach the top of the business world. A masochist streak, politely termed as &qu
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