New AMD CEO Gets $1 Million Base Salary

[iamtheking123]

[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]Is it not the CEO's that give the direction to the engineers & scientists?[/citation]
Puh-lease. The best direction a CEO can give, who typically doesn't have a technical degree, is "make a good product". Oh gee thanks...extra bonus for you Mr. CEO. Hell in most big corporate structures you can work there 20 years and never say a word to the boss of your boss...let alone ever speak to the CEO.

I've also read the argument that CEOs give business direction and engineers and scientists give technical direction. Yeah...because no innovation or successful businesses ever happened before business majors came around.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]iamtheking123[/nom]Puh-lease. The best direction a CEO can give, who typically doesn't have a technical degree, is "make a good product". Oh gee thanks...extra bonus for you Mr. CEO. Hell in most big corporate structures you can work there 20 years and never say a word to the boss of your boss...let alone ever speak to the CEO.I've also read the argument that CEOs give business direction and engineers and scientists give technical direction. Yeah...because no innovation or successful businesses ever happened before business majors came around.[/citation]

Someone has to tell the engineers & scientist to build a smart phone instead of a tablet...and then once they do, someone has to say...this isn't good enough...do better, we can't be as good as the competition...we have to be better, this is the market we're trying to blow away.

You say that someone is not the CEO...okay. I can accept that. Who is that someone?

 

[Guest]

Halcyon: I guess you think that only a spoiled rich kid brat executive can make decisions like that, eh? I mean, those engineer types are totally clueless, it's the executives who have the broad world view and understand the wants and needs of their middle-class customer base, even though most executives avoid any place where there might be middle-class people, ie: restaurants you can eat at for less than $50/person, etc...

*raucous laughter*

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]corporate_engineer_type[/nom]Halcyon: I guess you think that only a spoiled rich kid brat executive can make decisions like that, eh? I mean, those engineer types are totally clueless, it's the executives who have the broad world view and understand the wants and needs of their middle-class customer base, even though most executives avoid any place where there might be middle-class people, ie: restaurants you can eat at for less than $50/person, etc...*raucous laughter*[/citation]

Not at all. It's the executives that allow the engineers and scientist the funding to work on the projects the executives wanted worked.

...unless you things work differently where you're from. In the US, the executives set the vision and direct. The engineers and scientitsts work from that vision and direction.

I'm just say'n.

 

[halcyon]

...and where the executives eat and who they mix with is simply...irrelevant.

 

[kastraelie]

[citation][nom]jdamon113[/nom]now let get going with some new ideas.New CEO be smart, buy the HP PC Line they are selling it. this could do you well in the OEM market where intel holds supremacy.Not that I do not like intel. I have may intel products,. I would just like to keep the compition is check.[/citation]

Pay $XXX,XXX,XXX to have a target painted on your back?

 

[kastraelie]

[citation][nom]iamtheking123[/nom]CEO's do little more than breathe in and out. They spend every hour of every day in meetings with people and occasionally have to use their brain to make a yes or no decision. They get multiple secretaries to schedule everything for them and tell them where they need to be. That's totally worth 1 mil a year. Don't worry about the engineers doing real work and getting paid 1/10th that. And don't worry about making the right or wrong decisions because even if you leave in 3 years you've still made more than an engineer makes in their entire CAREER.I can see a CEO getting paid that much if they actually have been at the company since the very beginning and put in the miles building it up to what it is today. But nowadays CEOs are largely plug and play regurgitation from other companies and don't deserve such massive benefits.[/citation]

Aside from being massively ignorant, this is insulting. There is a reason they make the big bucks. You probably think that the lead consult in an operating room could be substituted with stalk of celery, since you think direction of operations requires no intelligence, knowledge, or experience. A CEO needs to be fully integrated into the roots of a company...a single poor decision or failure to predict and delete a flaw in operations can bring a company to its knees.

If starting a business were simple and easy--you would do it, hell everyone would. It doesn't get easier when hundreds of millions are at stake.

Are they paid too much? Sometimes, yes. Do some CEOs suck? Sometimes, yes. Is it a job that is simple? Anything but.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]kastraelie[/nom]Aside from being massively ignorant, this is insulting. There is a reason they make the big bucks. You probably think that the lead consult in an operating room could be substituted with stalk of celery, since you think direction of operations requires no intelligence, knowledge, or experience. A CEO needs to be fully integrated into the roots of a company...a single poor decision or failure to predict and delete a flaw in operations can bring a company to its knees.If starting a business were simple and easy--you would do it, hell everyone would. It doesn't get easier when hundreds of millions are at stake.Are they paid too much? Sometimes, yes. Do some CEOs suck? Sometimes, yes. Is it a job that is simple? Anything but.[/citation]

Very intelligently and objectively stated. Thanks. However, don't forget that there's a lot of kids in your audience and objectivity often isn't grasped earlier than 21.

 

[jujuvivi]

A CEO needs to be fully integrated into the roots of a company...

Surely not the case here.
This executive guy has no background in chip design, he might not even know how works a transistor!

a single poor decision or failure to predict and delete a flaw in operations can bring a company to its knees.

No way.
The life of companies like AMD doesn't suspend on the yes/no decision of a single man!
For every important decision, they are dozens of people more qualified than the CEO on the matter who drive and lead the path.

For company like AMD, success or failure depends if engineers can make chips smaller, faster, more efficient and more integrated and if they can compete on all possible markets (CPU, GPU, SmartPhone...)

We can indeed change a CEO for another one without seing any difference...
as long as you don't take a crazy guy who thinks he knows everything...

 

[Guest]

Compared to the new Apple boss its just fine 😀

 

[kastraelie]

[citation][nom]jujuvivi[/nom]Surely not the case here.This executive guy has no background in chip design, he might not even know how works a transistor!No way.[/citation]

Understanding what makes a chip work is one thing, understanding what goes into getting that chip out the door is absolutely necessary. This is what information systems is.

[citation][nom]jujuvivi[/nom]The life of companies like AMD doesn't suspend on the yes/no decision of a single man!For every important decision, they are dozens of people more qualified than the CEO on the matter who drive and lead the path.[/citation]

AMD has about 11,000 employees worldwide. Only one of them can make a decision, preferably someone who understands company operations, direction, and has the experience needed to make enterprise-wide changes.

[citation][nom]jujuvivi[/nom]For company like AMD, success or failure depends if engineers can make chips smaller, faster, more efficient and more integrated and if they can compete on all possible markets (CPU, GPU, SmartPhone...)[/citation]

This is absolutely false. Smaller, faster, and more efficient is a target--it is not a business model. "Better" (an undefinable term) than the competition does not guarantee a single sale. Competing in all possible markets would spell absolute disaster for any company. Market orientation (focus)is key for any company and needs to happen before product development. Who are our customers, what do they need, and how do we get it to them. Companies that cannot ask these questions fail, no matter the advanced product (Motorola Iridium, WebVan, Tucker Sedan, Sony DAT (or betamax for that matter)).

[citation][nom]jujuvivi[/nom]We can indeed change a CEO for another one without seing any difference...as long as you don't take a crazy guy who thinks he knows everything...[/citation]

At this point I am not sure why I am trying to offer rebuttals. Are all doctors the same? Are all scientists the same? Are all mechanics, school teachers, and chefs substitute-able? Did you read Rory Read's executive profile? Frankly I am surprised that 1M is all he got.