Evangelicals and Executive Salaries - food for thought
Oct 3, 2008 Faith in Culture
I just got done reading a really thought provoking article on Christianity Today called The Engine of the Market that urged wealthy Evangelicals to take a close look at executive compensation. In difficult economic times like we are seeing today, some of the stories we see on the huge paychecks executives are making are magnified ny their contrast to what the normal production level worker is making. The story referenced Alan Fishman of WaMu - who cleared a 19 million dollar “golden parachute” for presiding over a company for 18 days and seeing the FDIC seize and sell off the business.
Dr. Michael Lindsay also referenced John Tyson of Tyson Foods who in 2004 reacted to an economic downtun by demanding pay cuts from production workers that I am willing to be were making $50,000 a year or much less given Tyson’s past habit of hiring illegal workers. Meanwhile, his pay escalated to upwards of $20,000,000 per year. To me that works out to almost 600 jobs at $35,000 a year that could be funded with what he was making.
What kind of a Witness was he giving in this as a Christian?
Eric Schlosser of The Nation interviewed Tyson on his labor management philosophies after all this and got this gem in response:
“During an interview … Tyson outlined his personal theory of labor management, … [citing the importance of] a moral anchor. Tyson said, ‘You have to serve the people that work for you … and in effect become a servant to the people that work for you.’ He said it with a straight face.”
I’m not saying by any means that talented CEO’s shouldn’t be making some nice money. I do think that it’s extremely questionable to make huge money at the expense of tossing your workers out into the street while you pad your paycheck with increasing earn outs and bumped up salaries. I think it’s absolutely abhorrent for a clown like Fishman to get rewarded with $1.12 million per day he was with a company that tanked and lost a ton of money for people who trusted them.
The more important part of the article highlighted folks like Joel Manby (formerly of Saab USA) who decided to live at a reasonable level and help others:
“We could afford a second home, [but] with all these people … homeless, I just don’t feel right about that … .I’d rather do Habitat for Humanity where I’m building second homes [rather] than living in one.”
and Ralph Larsen (formerly of Johnson and Johnson) who, with his wife made the decision to live well below their income level and not upgrade homes and neighborhoods with his rise up the corporate ladder. Instead they used the wealth that they were blessed with to aggressively fund missions, charities and ministries.
As Christians - we need to have a conscience. We need to look to the teachings of Christ and the Gospel writers as they talk about the dangers of falling in love with money and the perks it can bring.
I am in no way talking about government redistribution of wealth here. I’m a capitalist… but a compassionate one. What I am saying is that as Christians (Evangelical or otherwise) we’ve been given teachings on the dangers of falling in love with money and it’s trappings. Something a Jewish carpenter said about it “being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle that for a rich man to get to heaven” comes to mind. We need to act as we’ve been taught and share our blessings (and do it happily.) If we did so - there would be no call for the redistribution of our money..
Anyway… The article is a great call for business owners and executives who claim Christian beliefs to put their money where their mouths are. Either make sure that your workers are being served and blessed by working with you - or look to pass on some of the perks as frivolous or put them to work for good through generous giving.
Does your compensation plan and giving reflect your Witness?
Tags: christian charity, christian ethics, christianity today, Christians in business
Christianity Today publishes tips on publishing press releases
Jul 15, 2008 Uncategorized
I get a really cool newsletter from Christianity Today Magazine called the “CTEYE On Marketing” that I recommend you check out. One of their articles in todays edition “Getting Your Story in Print: How to Publish a Press Release” focused on how businesses can take advantage of press releases to get cheap or free publicity and attention. There are great tips in the article for either first time PR publishers who don’t know how to get started or for experienced marketers who just need a guide to make sure they are being as effective as possible.
Should you publish a press release? Here are the situations that Christianity Today recommends that you should consider publishing a press release about:
▪ Awards and accomplishments-including product launches, research results, charitable gifts, goals reached and more
▪ Special events or milestones-anniversary, open house or other public event, fundraising campaign, sponsorships, seminars/lecture/conferences, and other special happenings or events
▪ Business changes-including new appointments, retirements, expansion/downsizing, new products or services, new contracts, customers, mergers/acquisitions, sale of business, relocation, name change and other announcements relevant to the public.
▪ Business promotions-trade shows, contests, offers, celebrity endorsements, free stuff and more
▪ Crisis communications and issues management-while your tendency might be to “so silent,” getting your version of the story to the public when there’s a serious problem is often a good policy.
The team at Christianity Today supplies some tips on formatting, do’s and don’ts, etc to help you get the most from your press releases. Check it out:)
God Bless,
Wade
Tags: christianity today, market with press releases, marketing with press releases, press release
Tips on effective email marketing from Christianity Today
Jun 18, 2008 eMail Marketing
I get a periodic email from the folks at Christianity Today that has a marketing focus. I was just looking over the email that I received yesterday and I thought I would talk a little bit about marketing with email. Despite all the talk of email being dead or on it’s way out as a hot marketing technique, you are still crazy not to build an opt-in list if you are a serious marketer.
I personally recommend using a tool like AWeber to handle the list management and delivery of your emails for you. They specialize in running email campaigns for businesses and have great relationships with ISP’s and spam blacklists that insure high delivery rates. They are able to do this because they are strict with their users, requiring a “double opt-in” to add subscribers to your lists, and really strict when it comes to uploading existing lists to make sure that a solid opt-in relationship exists with your list through testing before allowing full upload.
Once you have a list subscribed and permission to contact them, what are some best practices? According to Nancy Flynn, author of The ePolicy Handbook and Writing Effective E-Mail, there are 9 tips you should keep in mind. Some of my favorites include:
1. Write a subject line with “oomph.” A small but powerful weapon in the battle to capture reader attention, the subject line should reveal what the e-message is about before it’s opened. “Attracting and Retaining Top Performers,” for example, says more than “Employee Benefits.”
2. Never begin with thank you. You only have a few seconds to grab the reader’s attention. Start strong. Make your point in the first few words of your e-mail, then repeat, rephrase, and reiterate.
5. Remain gender neutral. Your intended reader may be male, but the ultimate decision-maker could be a woman. Avoid masculine pronouns and other “turn-off” language.
7. Resist the urge to CAPITALIZE!!! The eye is accustomed to reading a mix of upper and lowercase letters, so stick with standard style. And don’t slap exclamation points on the end of sentences!!! Instead, pump up your writing with descriptive language and well-crafted sentences.
I think that the bottom line on communicating with and marketing with email is that we have to remember that email is forever. If we make a mistake and send out badly worded messages, or we get carried away with something negative in an email, it is going to find it’s way into hundred or thousands of inboxes.
As Christians, we are called to encourage others and be beacons of light to all we interact with. Let’s make sure we do this in our email marketing and communications with clients and prospects.
You can check the rest of the tips at CTI Advertising
They have a pretty cool article on Lessons on Leadership from Moses - the First CEO as well.
God Bless,
Wade
