Join the discussion on the following article:
ND agriculture commissioner calls CP’s Harrison ‘arrogant’
Join the discussion on the following article:
ND agriculture commissioner calls CP’s Harrison ‘arrogant’
Harrison arrogant? DAAA
Good ole ,easy going, humble, nice as the day is long Hunter Harrison arrogant ?!? Surely you jest!
CP is by no means the only corporation that puts customers’ needs behind the investors. I see it all the time in my own business with our prime supplier. Arrogant? Show me a CEO who isn’t.
I’m no fan of Hunter Harrison but he and the rest of the board of directors are under a fiduciary duty imposed by law to act in the best interests of their stockholders, since it the stockholders’ money they are entrusted with. The law imposes no greater or higher or more difficult duty than fiduciary duty. So yes, a CEO of a public corporation cannot put the interests of others before the interests of the stockholders, or they are acting contrary to law. They will (or should) act first in the interests of the people whose money has been put under his control and guardianship.
The stockholders of the CP would be more than happy to replace Hunter Harrison with someone else if he deviates from that basic principle. Indeed that is how he got the job.
In any business good customer service is always what is best for the company and ultimately the stockholders. This is always true in both the short and long run. Unfortunately many corporate CEOs don’t get it.
Mr. Nelson: Railroads are common carriers, so there is also a legal obligation to serve their customers as well as possible.
Sounds like they hit the nail on the head. Hunter only worries about cutting everything. He don’t have time to move customer’s freight.
Sounds a little like the pot calling the kettle black. An unelected “offical” telling someone else how and where to do something (spend their money) for his sole benefit isn’t aggogant??
Hard to improve service when you’ve laid off as many people as he has…
Mr. Nelson from Wisconsin has it right. And it is difficult for me to understand how the Commissioner of Agriculture for the fine state of North Dakota who has limited or no formal authority to cause CPR to do, or not do, anything is going to get cooperation from the Railroad by making these kinds of remarks about its management, even if he is only is saying what he believes is true. If CPR finds it is hurting itself more in the long run than it is helping itself by focusing its attention elsewhere, maybe it will change its behavior?
My friends who are still working for CPR tell me Hurricane Harrison and his henchmen have made their lives a living hell. When I started with CPR/D&H in 1999, those of us from other railroads couldn’t believe how well we were treated, but that’s all over now. CNR workers who we interchanged with at Taschereau Yard told me the same thing when he headed CN. Harrison may be the darling of Wall Street, but no one else. If I were him, I’d only travel with bodyguards. I’m glad I sold my stock in CPR.