CEO's ARE judged based on PPS and rightly so
posted on
Feb 27, 2009 07:53AM
In my opinion, you HAVE to judge RG on the performance of the share price. Afterall, this is a PUBLIC company, and his NUMBER ONE responsibilty is to return value to the shareholders.
Granted, you can't simply look at a small time frame for that pps performance and judge solely on that, but in one year's time, RG has presided over a PPS decline from a high of 42 cents on his first day, to the current 10 cents, and reaching highs of 65 cents along the way. So it can be argued, validly, in my opinion, that he has failed to return any value to shareholders and instead has returned a loss of 85% of shareholder value.
Don't get me wrong, I THINK RG has done a pretty good job. I THINK he has focussed on the right issues in positioning the company for the future. I THINK his willingness to be more forthright and direct and accessible in his communications is a good thing. HOWEVER, the market is saying otherwise. The market is saying that NONE of those things means a thing, or if they do, they mean that what he's done is a negative for PTSC. I know there are extenuating circumstances and perhaps the market isn't aware, or at least enough of it isn't aware of those circumstances, but the point is, the market rarely lies.
For me, I'm betting that this is one of those times where the market IS lying, and that what I know is more than what "the market" knows. More than likely, I'm wrong, but that's the risk I take. Since I've based that risk taking on what RG has told us, I hold him partly responsible. At some point, he has to DELIVER on what he's told us, in the form of a return on our investment and as each passing day goes by, that window on which to judge him becomes more complete, but that window DOES have limits on how much opportunity it gives him, and ultimately, the Share Price IS AND WILL BE that sole and impartial judge. RG needs to do whatever is necessary to be judged well by it. Otherwise, he will be just another CEO who was unduly rewarded for a lack of success, a growing trend in corporate America.