plumear .. I believe that many of those that have expressed disapproval of IDCC's BOD new grants of potentially higher levels of compensation, myself included, are not just concerned about IDCC but rather about an ever growing trend thoughout the corporate world of corporate boards granting themselves more and more and more. Where is the line? I'm not sure but there are plenty of people who think that, in many cases, it has already been passed. Personally, I think they have every right to question the direction of things and hear an answer.
I agree that the line was crossed a long time ago in Corporate America. Unfortunately, IDCC like all companies competes mostly with companies that have crossed the line. Some here believe that IDCC should unilaterally take the lead in restoring the line. They have certainly exercised their right on this board, as well as with IDCC directly, to question the direction of things. And they most definitely have heard the same answer in each instance. IDCC, except in minor ways, is NOT going to buck the trend. I don't see them changing that stance in the foreseeable future, if at all. That may suck to some here, but that is the reality.
So, what to do now? Whenever I've been faced with that question I've used the zero based budget approach, i.e. start with the definition, goals and objectives of my job and then decide what actions will cause me to best perform my job. As of Friday's close I had $105,700 of my personal assets invested in IDCC. My job is to make sure every day that the $105,700, along with my other financial assets, are invested in such a way in context with my cash needs that my long term personal financial goals are met or exceeded to the greatest extent possible. Every day I am completely free to do whatever I want with whatever the value of that $105,700 has become on that day. That's my job and presumably the job of everyone else on this board. At the end of the day, I can't expect anyone to help me with that job. The responsibility is solely mine.
I certainly don't know everything about that job, but I do know a lot. I know that it is fraught with uncertainty and that there are not enough hours in the day or resources available to reduce that uncertainty by any significant extent. I also know that you can't do two things at once and time management is critical. Importantly, in that regard, when an answer you don't like has been staring you in the face for several years it is a waste of VERY valuable time asking the same questions over and over again in hopes that you will get a different answer. Time to move on to another subject. What I have been trying to say is that IMO anyone on this board that is unwilling to accept the clear-cut answers that come from their DD and shareholder activism efforts instead of moving on to another subject is not doing their job. But the choice is theirs, not mine. It is their money and their financial futures they are dealing with, not mine.
Finally, if someone thinks that, because I or someone else does not approve of the compensation plan, it puts me or them in the same camp as Corp Buyer (or anyone else's camp for that matter), I think that's faulty thinking. I can agree with a poster on this board about one issue and just as easily disagree on another. There could be some on this board that I might rarely agree with but it doesn't mean that I will automatically disagree with everything they think. Likewise, just because I agree with someone most of the time doesn't mean I will never disagree.
I'm with you on this one all the way. I sure don't like being lumped into the "apologist" and "cheerleader" camp or any other camp for that matter. Also, more than once I've been chewed out here for either agreeing with someone I had always disagreed with before or visa-versa. It is part of our job, and an important one at that, to keep personal likes and dislikes out of our DD to the extent possible.
MO,
Danny
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