Lionel to emerge from bankruptcy?

The bankruptcy judge has agreed to Lionel's plan to pay the CEO a salary of $1 million a year and the vice president of marketing $465,000 a year. The judge also agreed to extend Lionel's bankruptcy loans through May 30 and move the hearing for Lionel's bankruptcy plan forward to March 13.

Re: "Lionel gets OK for executives' pay deals" Crain's Detroit Business, January 29, 2008

"Mark Mathu" wrote

Does anyone else see the basic contradiction between these suggested salaries and the goal of returning Lionel to financial solvency? It's probably silly to suggest it, but how about basing their pay on Lionel's actual performance after the first year or so?

I.E. If Lionel does well, they get the big bucks, and if it doesn't, they get nada. And the boot.

Pete

You sound like a commie!

"Steve Caple" wrote

Alas! My four and a half decades as a centrist Republican (remember those?) are revealed as the camouflage they actually were.

Where do you go to get subscriptions to "Pravda" these days, comrade?

Pete

The r.m.r ng ... why?

Paul

Aha! the secret revealed: RMR stands for Renmin Ribao

"Paul Newhouse" wrote

It's all part of our insidious Commie plot to drive the humorless, anal-retentive Capitalist running-dogs totally bonkers.

Good to know that we're seeing some success.

"Steve Caple" wrote

Alas, idiots on both political extremes love to imagine that anyone who disagrees with them about *anything* must therefore be opposed to

It keeps them from having to think, which saves a lot of time.

Pete

AH! I could have more time to work on the layout!! KEWL!!! Thanks for the heads up!

Paul

"Paul Newhouse" wrote

I suspect that most of us *enjoy* putting a lot of thought into our layouts.

In fact, I've had several that never got any further than that.

Pete

My head is awash with them. Never dust and very easy to use.

-- Ray

Without a head, the body is dead. You really want to decapitate Lionel to save it?

Oh that's a brilliant argument. When the head is a leech, no wonder the corporation's anemic.

I doubt any executive type worth the job offer would sign what you suggest to be a contingency contract. Even baseball players sign multi-year contracts based on management's expectation of quality performance. Personally, performance-tied contracts are the best way to go assuming some minimal with enough $$$ to exist. But, that will never happen in sports (yes, I realize there are incentives for add-ons based on performance) and most likely never happen in the corporate world.

Heck, link teacher pay to performance and see what the teacher's union reaction is. :)

It's been done, and it worked. It's called "merit pay", and the ATU tried very hard to introduce it in several US jurisdictions, but succeeded in only a few (this was in the 1970s). The greatest opposition came from the school trustees, who saw it as a ploy to raise teachers' pay. The fact that the ATU wanted to assess teacher's skills and effectiveness by several different measures didn't help either. That would require more and better trained supervisory personnel, as well as paying for 3rd party evaluations of teachers, both of which cost money. It's cheaper to just leave things as they are.

Of course, if you think a teacher's performance has something to do with "test results", think again. Test results prove only that kids have been trained to pass tests. Like performing seals... Not to mention the fact that if you tie funding to test results, you create a climate that encourages cheating on board and system-wide scales, as has been amply demonstrated (in Austin, Texas, for example.)

Looking back on my career as a teacher, the one thing I regret, and wish to apologise to my students for, is "grading." Kids aren't eggs. They learn at different rates, and the rate of learning changes during the school year. Besides, factors outside of school, and hence beyond the teacher's control, often affect the learning far more than the lessons do. The only valid assessment is of how much the student learned/improved during the course. In my experience, a C student often improved more than an A student. The latter often coasted on already acquired skills and knowledge.

It was tried. When you pay depends on how well your students do their performance (at least on paper) goes up incredibly. The reality was different.

WD

That's the problem with "objective tests". It's very easy to cheat, erm, sorry, I mean, "teach to the test."

The ATU wanted to base merit pay on qualifications, experience, and regular inspections by supervisors and/or 3rd parties. They also wanted a Mentor Teacher program, sorta like articling for law students, residency for docs, etc. AFAIK, that's still their policy.

Gee, I vaguely recall that there used to be school inspectors.... I guess their travel expenses cost too much.

Neil Young and Lionel have asked the bankruptcy court to let them buy out Louis Kovach's share of Creative Trains Company, a joint venture between Young and Kovach. Creative Trains is the developer of Lionel's "Trainmaster" control system. That's good news, it looks like Lionel is making a commitment to staying in the model train business in the future.

Lionel, Neil Young Seek Buyout Houston Chronicle, Feb. 4, 2008