Savings Experiment: Snow Removal
Why Your 2012 Tax Bill May Jump By $8,000Any experienced investor could give a dissertation on the utmost importance of good senior management toward the success of any enterprise. This seems to be lost on the Boards of Directors of both Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and the New York Knickerbockers NBA franchise.
Last week the Knicks suffered another embarrassing moment during the reign of Isaiah Thomas as General Manager and Coach of the team. A jury awarded a plaintiff $11,600,000 in a sexual harassment case against Thomas and the Knicks. Thomas has squirmed around in the executive suite for a long time, and after numerous bad trades and draft picks, he let a great coach go only to decide to pace the hardwood himself. After all the wheeling and dealing, it is long overdue for a change at the top of the Knicks organization. My comment comes at the end of a long list of people that have been saying the same thing for years -- but now the feeling is almost unanimous throughout the sports world.
In the mean time, another formidable New York establishment and stock market centerpiece, Citigroup, has done some major shuffling in the executive suite of its organization, but the top guy, Chuck Prince, still reigns over his kingdom after years of disappointing performance. It seems that the Knicks and Citigroup share two things in common. The first is the misconception that looking busy and doing a lot of things is the same as making progress. The second is a very forgiving Board of Directors that is either too weak or two blind to see the truth and take action. In the absence of real change, look for both organizations to continue to struggle, hoping no one will notice their short comings, but there is no one left -- the jig is up guys!
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.
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