February 2011 Archives

In his first year as CEO of El Segundo-based DirecTV, Michael White received a pay package valued at $32.7 million in 2010, according to the Associated Press.

Here's what AP says:

Most of the pay came in the form of stock and option awards worth $27.2 million when they were granted. However, the satellite TV company said White won't receive additional awards during the rest of his three-year contract.

Last year, DirecTV Group Inc. increased revenue, profits and subscribers and extended its position as the world's largest pay TV provider with 19.2 million subscribers in the U.S. and 8.9 million in Latin America.

The AP calculation aims to isolate the value that company boards place on CEOs' total compensation packages. It includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards.

Are you a procrastinator? I am.
But do we procrastinators need to change our ways?
It's a worthy question and the topic of this week's Business Casual.
Here's how I started Business Casual:

As I write this column on deadline, it occurs to me that maybe I should have started much earlier. My name is Muhammed and I am a recovering procrastinator. Or maybe, like with alcoholism, a procrastinator can never fully recover.

Read Business Casual.

If Boeing loses, then Boeing and its friends in industry and government would come down on the Air Force and the Obama administration would suffer the fallout.
Boeing also would be expected to appeal the decision.
If Airbus wins, the political fallout would be far less, even though Airbus would build the tankers in America and hire Americans to do the building.

(Chicago Breaking Business) Boeing Co. is the underdog to land a $35-billion contract for aerial refueling tankers that the Pentagon is expected to award as early as Thursday, analysts said.

If conventional wisdom is right, France-based EADS North America would win its first major U.S. defense deal and would be the front-runner to replace the entire half-century-old tanker fleet, contracts expected to total more than $100 billion.

The tanker contest is one of the ugliest and longest-running procurement dramas in Defense Department history. And it may not end with tomorrow's announcement.

Read more on Boeing's tanker contest.

This is an interesting question, since some believe the media went overboard on the possibility of an electronics problem behind the car company's unintended acceleration problems.

Here's an opinion that says the media went too far. This opinion portrays the results of a government study as definitive and the closing of the book on the Toyota recall issue. Some people disagree with the study.

(Amarillo Globe-News) After an exhaustive and thorough 10-month study, the U.S. Department of Safety Administration (NHTSA) and NASA recently reported they found no evidence that electronics were to blame for the alleged unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Read more on Toyota's recall issue.

Every time there's an auto recall these days, I think of Toyota's massive recalls of 12 million vehicles in the past year and a half. The big difference is that Honda's Fit recall isn't driven by deaths of motorists, especially the fiery crash in San Diego County recorded on a 911 distress call in which a family died in a Toyota Lexus.

(USA Today)

Honda is recalling about 693,000 subcompacts sold worldwide under three nameplates -- including 2009-10 Fits sold in the U.S. -- for bad springs in the engine's valvetrain.

Honda says 97,201 of the Fits are in the U.S. The recall is to replace bad "lost motion springs" which are are compressed by rocker arms in normal engine use. The springs may bend or break over time, says Honda, resulting in abnormal engine noise and potentially causing engine damage or stalling.

Read more on Honda's recall.

Borders Books plans to close about 200 stores in the next few weeks including in Rolling Hills Estates and Westchester. There are other planned Borders closings in Southern California. See the full closure list here.

This may be the second leg of Toyota's recovery from its recalls.

(Automotive News) LOS ANGELES -- Just two days after NASA engineers cleared Toyota of electronic flaws in its throttle control system, the company's battered image among consumers had already experienced a lift.

The 10-month investigation into causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles turned up no electronic problems.

Read more about Toyota's reputation.

The 99 Cents Only Stores is an interesting company whose business has been boosted by the weak economy and all the people looking for bargains because of their shrinking budgets.
This retail chain recently came out with an interesting ad for Valentine's Day. I couldn't resist writing about it. Here's how I started the column:

If a guy were to buy lingerie from 99 Cents Only Stores as a Valentine's Day present for his wife, she likely would force him to wear the undergarments - on his head.

Really, I'm serious.

Read Business Casual.

After the Super Bowl, PSCars.com surveyed about 2,000 car buyers on the impact of the auto ads during the championship game. Here's what the survey found:

- 71% of respondents remembered Hyundai and Volkswagen commercials

- 52% of respondents care more about the car or truck than the particular brand being advertised

- 76% of men and women were confused about Chrysler's Eminem commercial featuring the Chrysler 200

- 33% of women remember the Audi: Release the Hounds commercial compared to only 18 percent of men

- 23% of respondents (considering compact cars) are interested in the Hyundai Elantra

In case you missed it.

Is it worth it? Read today's At Work profile on a San Pedro couple who started an ice cream business to serve the dessert at events.

Read At Work.

The protests in Egypt against tyranny and dictatorship seem to have caught a lot of people by surprise. What to make of it.
Maybe we can understand what's happening there by viewing the action from a capitalist perspective.
To understand what I mean, you'll have to read Business Casual.
Here's how I started this week's column:

On a solo trip to Cairo in my early 20s, I bought a hamburger at a local restaurant and wandered the ancient city's streets eating.

I could have munched on a sandwich of authentically Arab falafel, but I guess I was homesick enough to choose an all-American meal.

Read Business Casual.

Manhattan Beach-based Skechers is paying reality TV star Kim Kardashian to pitch its Shape Ups footwear line. Perhaps taking a page from GoDaddy.com's racy Super Bowl ad campaign of the past few years, Skechers will use sex to sell.

Here's a link to a preview of Skechers' Kardashian ad.

Regarding news of Toyota offering buyouts to 629 managers in Torrance, here's an analyst's perspective:

"Not a surprise as companies realign to become more competitive. Most manufacturers have been doing this for the past few years. Most call it right sizing. Everyone is trying to improve their efficiency and that includes Toyota."

-- David E. Cole
Chairman Emeritus
Center for Automotive Research
Ann Arbor, Mich.

2 million flight hours is an impressive feat for such a plane. It demonstrates logevity, which seems to be Boeing's main objective in extending the production life of the C-17 program.

Here's the C-17 video.