Today’s newswire indicated that Hunter Harrison left CN a little disgruntled and is ready to shake things up at CP.
What would he be able to do for them?
Ed
Well he probably won’t have to do too much, the monopoly (CPR) has only one competitor (CNR) so I would think it pretty well runs itself.
So far all Hunter and Pershing have done is criticize the current CP leadership. Anyone can criticize…actually doing better is harder to do.
Are there any U. S. railroads as CP merger partners in Mr. Hunter’s sights?
I don’t know…'seems to me, you wouldn’t hire someone like Hunter Harrison just to maintain the staus quo. Wouldn’t you think there would be an emphasis on making the railroad more efficient, and more profitable?
Why do you say CPR is the monopoly? And are you forgetting that they own a few miles of track south of the border?
CP and CN compete to all major destinations west of Montreal. East of Montreal is pretty much only CN with the exception of G&W from Drummondville south to Portland, ME and of course the St Lawrence and Atlantic across Maine to Saint John, NB.
Well he’s made enough of a ruckus to get CN to file papers attempting to cut off his $40M retirement plan due to alleged violations of a non-compete clause. Whatever he’s doing…I hope it’s worth more than what he might lose if they’re successful.
I think they’re very apprehensive about what Mr. Harrison could do with the CP.
Granted that CN might have thought it had protected itself with the non-compete agreement:
Makes me wonder, if HH is such a miracle worker, why CN didn’t waive the mandatory-retirement rule and keep him around a while longer. Granted, at some point you have to clear the way for your management of the future. But, if we are to believe the raves, execs like HH don’t come along every day. It would seem to make sense to take advantage of their talents for as long as you can.
Any company that pushes out a Exec that is delivering the desired level of results - does so at their own future peril.
Although he’s very capable there are others who are equally up to the task of running the Company. I don’t know why any company would have a mandatory retirement age other than perhaps for safety sensitive positions. Other than that, if you’ve got a good employee who wants to work into his or her 70s or even 80s, then why not allow that? I’m not sure that his contract was not renewed due to age reeasons…there may have been other reasons as well.
Sorry, should have said the CPR is pretty well A monopoly in CANADA ! You probably won’t see any-many great changes in the CPR, after all, it’s the C.P.R. as everyone here in Canada knows all too well.
CN competes directly with CP on most points west of Montreal…ie if you ship to Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Vancouver you can do so using either CN or CP.
To those who want to see really good coverage of this story, check out the web site of CP’s hometown city newspaper, www.calgaryherald.com. As I discovered today, it has lots of goodies.
On another forum/ Group (at Linked-In) there’s an article that basically says there was a ‘falling out’ of sorts between Harrison and the CN board around 2009 - they didn’t want to extend his contract for X many years, so he said “To heck with them” and left as soon as he could. If I can find a cite or link to a public version of that, I’ll post it here. And that raises the questions: 1) Why was the CN board reluctant ? 2) Why is Harrison so vengeful about it ?
- Paul North.
P.S. - From Monday’s The Globe & Mail:
Why would Harrison be vengeful? Well I don’t know the man, and have little to no interest in him, but I’d suspect that like most very successful and powerful businessmen he’s got an ego, and being pushed out by CN probably put a big dent in it. Payback time? Wouldn’t surprise me.
CN directors cancel Hunter Harrison’s retirement package
This headline just in from CTV News. And even before EHH accepted any sort of job from CP or Ackman.
http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article2334450.html
Bruce
It really boils down to what his noncompete agreement states. CN (who is suing Harrison in IL) states he has violated his agreement while Harrison’s lawyer states that he clearly has not. They can’t both be right, and I’m surprised it would be an issue unless the agreement was poorly executed. .
I don’t know why CN would go through the trouble. As bright and capable as Harrison is, he is 67 years old and there are plenty of bright people employed at both roads. I understand about corporate secrets; however, CN’s “secret” to its recent success has been well publicized…and its not as if Harrison is withholding the secret to nuclear fusion on a kitchen stove. They should let him go to CP if he wants to…his CN pension and the 5 million in CP stock he recently purchased would indicate that he has a vested interest in both roads, and that’s maybe what is needed. He did mention that CN and CP could explore areas for further cooperation in some areas, and from that standpoint Harrison might be just the man for that.
To me, it is exciting to see railroads important enough once more to be worth fighting over, as CSX was a few years ago and CP is today.
Also a railroad executive. Speaking of which, it’s hard to recognize Hunter Harrison in Don Phillips’ description of the ideal CEO in his March Trains column. There, being a good CEO is made to sound like an exercise in self-effacement. I think the top of Harrison’s head would come off.
E-Dot talks a good one, but to me he aint worth spit. Inside, his troops demoralized, with a white wash finish.