Some days I just don’t think the companies in Michigan get it yet. Visteon (Ticker VSTN), which is in bankruptcy, is working on securing loans from the auto makers including GM, Ford, Nissan North American, and Chrysler to stay affloat. In other words, the customers are trying to save the supplier despite some of the customers being in bankruptcy protection themselves.
With this in mind, the Visteon management thought it would be a good idea to request paying $30 million of the loan money to 100 key employees as a bonus to the employees. The request might jeopardize the loan approvals and destroy the company.
There are two key points here: 1) employees that ran the company into bankruptcy are not longer “key” employees, they should be shown the door, not bonused, 2) the inclination to pay bonuses instead of innovate with the loan money is stunningly stupid.
C’mon guys. Even in bankruptcy you aren’t showing a change in your ways.