Post AdLRVdluMISjhKsgOO by stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe
 (DIR) More posts by stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe
 (DIR) Post #AdKy7jHnJ8hvBC2dxA by stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe
       2023-12-30T14:02:36Z
       
       0 likes, 2 repeats
       
       My father-in-law is a farmer, and has always supplied his crops to farmer cooperatives. Year after year, the cooperatives' financials improve, but the margins for farmers shrink. Reading the financial statements (which are public but well hidden, of course), it's discovered that each year the executives' salaries, the president's, and the employees' increase, and bonuses are awarded to them when the harvests or profits are better than previous years. In practice, the farmer doesn't benefit, except marginally, from a particularly good year for the cooperative. He's been a board member for years and, when he tried to raise this issue, he was gradually and 'elegantly' dismissed from his position, replaced by figures less agricultural and more bureaucratic.Many Italian public entities own private but publicly owned companies. These entities are obliged to use these companies, often with lower service quality and higher prices than the free market. In theory, this should be an advantage for the community, but in practice, it leads to a decrease in the competitiveness of service prices and lower revenues for local companies, made non-competitive by the obligation. The result is that, year after year, the costs of services increase and we hear about 'record budgets', but, in fact, the only ones earning more are the presidents, board members, officials, and employees. The citizen, however, sees the cost of the service increasing year after year.I read everywhere about controversies related to the CEO of Mozilla's compensation, and I'm not surprised. It doesn't matter whether it's about distributing 'sugared water (quote)', hardware, public services, agricultural products, or anything else: when there's a lot of money involved, the figures 'at the top' are very, very far from what really happens below. It's pure business.Regarding this, I will tell an experience related to the BSD Cafe - but I will have to phrase it well as I don't want to be misunderstood or generate controversy and/or bad feelings.Much of Italian entrepreneurship (especially post-war, but not only) has been tied to people passionate about a product, who have built empires (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Del Vecchio with LuxOttica, Ferrero, and many others). When the boss is actually a Leader with vision and passion, things can work. And it's not a matter of money. Money may come, but as a consequence, not as a target.When, instead, a 'generic' entrepreneur is put in charge, the product loses its importance - like when a computer company was led by someone who, until the day before, sold 'sugared water', precisely.#PublicSector #Entrepreneurship #TechLeadership #Mozilla #LuxuryBrands #BusinessEthics #EconomicInequality #CorporateCompensation #CEOcontroversy#PublicServices #NoProfit
       
 (DIR) Post #AdLIcwK2t40BfgFpE8 by soaproot@sfba.social
       2023-12-30T17:52:20Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @stefano Sorry to hear that your dad's co-op is like that. I'm in a bit of a conundrum, because I'm not exactly in the "we don't need management" camp, but how do we just get back to postwar levels of executive compensation?
       
 (DIR) Post #AdLRVdluMISjhKsgOO by stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe
       2023-12-30T19:31:53Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @soaproot It's difficult to find a good balance. In general, I believe that the productive part should always play a central role in the situation. In the case of my father-in-law, farmers invest, pay, spend, take risks, buy and use machinery, use owned land or pay rent, and pay taxes. If a flood occurs, like a few years ago, they lose their entire harvest (and not everyone can insure against such disasters). Cohoperative executives, officials, and employees should, of course, receive fair compensation, but the central role should always remain with the farmers. The same goes for other types of situations, such as public ones or others (I think of some open-source software foundations, where the bulk of the proceeds don't go to the development of the product itself but to a variety of entirely tangential components).
       
 (DIR) Post #AdLSCmmmihbO6greds by tara@hachyderm.io
       2023-12-30T19:39:29Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @stefano why am I not surprised about your in-law experience? 🙄I can't understand why and how we went from passionate (and  respectful) leaders to "generic" entrepreneurs. Corporate attitude, high margins and high paycheck always existed. But at least, somehow products were always first. Back to Italy as an example, just look at fashion. Once upon a time, quality of the product made the brand famous. Now the brand is more important than the product itself. Is just pure rebranding.