Anything For You All: INSTANT MBA: When Company Leaders Take A Pay Cut, The Benefits Are Priceless

Senin, 12 Desember 2011

INSTANT MBA: When Company Leaders Take A Pay Cut, The Benefits Are Priceless

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Monday, December 12, 2011

Today's advice comes from Portugal Telecom CEO Zeinal Bava's interview with the Wall Street Journal:

"Today, uncertainty is leading to a lot of volatility. The market seems to overreact to bad news and simply ignore any good news. Investors require clarity and predictability."

That's why it's important to build a trustworthy reputation for yourself and your company, Bava says. At Portugal Telecom, that's something he's fought for, fending off a private firm's takeover by finding ways to distinguish his business in the marketplace.

The overarching idea is to attract investors, but that starts by building the sort of office environment that encourages productivity and cooperation. And Bava has cultivated that intra-office respect.

When tough times threatened his company's success two years ago, Portugal Telecom employees faced a pay freeze. Bava cut his own pay by 10% and hasn't seen a raise since. The benefits of implementing his own pay cut are two-fold for Bava: first, his employees know he's sacrificing, too, so they don't resent him or their own pay cuts as much. Second, it streamlines costs and boosts investors' confidence in the operation.

The struggling European economy isn't making things easier for Portuguese businesses, but Bava's uniform dedication to his company's growth, his workers, and the bottom line better his chances of weathering it rather than succumbing to it.

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