When focusing on increasing shareholder wealth with integrity, the corporation can be a positive force of lives and community. They can employ, creating opportunities for their employees and families, while valuing and rewarding the sacrifices those employees make to contribute to corporate goals. They can provide needed products and services for their customers, at a good quality and price. They can benefit their communities in several different ways, through charity or otherwise, recognizing that without the community they could never be successful.
More after the break...
Case in point.
Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded off the Gulf of Mexico last year, has given its top executives bonuses for achieving the "best year in safety performance in our company's history'',
despite the blast that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean.
Transocean noted "the tragic loss of life'' in the Gulf when the rig operated by BP PLC exploded last April. But it said the company still had an "exemplary'' safety record because it met or exceeded certain internal safety targets concerning the frequency and severity of its accidents, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
Most people would find accepting a safety bonus under such conditions laughable, considering the consequences of the Deep Water Horizon disaster, but in the current corporate culture, even an action as beyond the pale as this is appropriate when an embarrassing accumulation of wealth is your management goal.
And their justification?
Although in 2010 we made significant progress in achieving our strategic and operational objectives for the year, these developments were overshadowed by the April 20, 2010 fire and explosion onboard our semi-submersible drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon, off the Louisiana coast that resulted in the deaths of 11 of our colleagues, including nine Transocean employees, and the uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons from the well for an extended period (the ‘‘Macondo Incident’’). As a result, many of our senior executive officers… dedicated a significant portion of their time in 2010 following the Macondo Incident to responding to the needs of the victims’ families, coordinating the involvement of additional resources required to stem the flow of hydrocarbons, including drilling rigs and personnel to drill relief wells and other operations as requested by the Unified Area Command, cooperating with the numerous federal, state, and local reviews and investigations into the incident, overseeing our internal investigation of the incident, and managing other demands stemming from these activities, in addition to performing their normal responsibilities.
Such a sacrifice they made. Perhaps the real reason for such bonuses stems from them actually making money on this unmitigated disaster.
the owner of the rig leased by BP PLC (BP,BP.LN) which is currently leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico, made a $270 million profit from insurance payouts after the disaster, the Sunday Times reports.
The amount, revealed during a conference call to analysts, was made because its insurance policy for Deepwater Horizon rig was greater than the value of the rig itself, the paper reports. The Times says Transocean has already received cash payment of $401 million and the rest is due in the coming weeks.