Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Lies, Damned Lies and ... Surveys

Ultimately you have to feel sorry for Solomon Dennis Trujillo III. All he's done is accept the invitation of the Telstra Board to be CEO and run the show exactly as any one who has reviewed his career would have expected him to.

So today we see news stories that BRW has rated him as the least admired CEO of the CEOs of Australia's top 100 companies. It really is a dodgy measure being based on surveys of faceless investment analysts - all of whom are a bit narked because the Telstra CEO does seem to spend more time managing the company than spruiking the stock (though on some reports both are less than his overseas forays).

No doubt the academy of spin known as the nowwearetalking website will have some new conspiracy theory about the survey, but I think you can't dispute that it measures what it measures. But the Telstra CEO we see is the Telstra CEO the Board hired, so if the investment community wants to draw its knives its the Telstra Chair and Board they need to invite to be the turkey at Christmas (or thanksgiving) dinner.

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