Canadian Railroads > CP's EHH Arrogant

While the article is from south of the border I suspect that a lot of CP employees from either Canada or US will agree with this guy,

http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/24180/

And a lot of shippers will agree with the writer also.

You expected otherwise?
The ONLY thing that matters to Harrison is the stock price and in turn the value the company may well have down the road if it is sold or merged elsewhere. It's all about the money!

Bryce Lee

Someone needs to point out to the politician that EHH is an American, NOT a Canadian.

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

And Steve Jobs was also arrogant and often hard on his employees per his biography (an excellent read, BTW). Many successful execs are arrogant.

And, in other news, the sun rose this morning.

EHH was hired by Pershing Square precisely because he was willing to shake the business to the core. The collateral damage to employees, shippers, etc was just unfortunate.

Fred Green and the Bay Street gang were living pretty high on the CP shareholders' dime. Under EHH, the stock price has gone up and that's what he was hired to do.

Financial expectations look great over the next 4 years according to this:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1421156/canadian-pacific-outlines-new-financial-targets-at-company-s-2014-investor-conference

EHH sets his sites on Chicago (again):

http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKCN0HR28G20141002?sp=true

Any possibility that CP, because of its history in Canada, just has more experience in blowing off complaints from grain producers than BNSF did? After all, under the Crow's Nest regime, they pretty much ignored the interests of farmers for many decades.

And while I'm no admirer of EHH, you don't get to be the CEO of ANY organization of that size without being (at least occasionally) an arrogant a$$hole. He probably had that listed on his resume when they hired him.

Anybody been to "Hunter Camp" and heard his story of the the mule and stick, it would make you sick. Also one of his minions called us Canadian railroaders "snow niggers". The USofA is great, just leave us Canucks alone, we can do quite well thank you. I survived a few years under "his" regime on BC Rail, really feel sorry for the CP guys.
Doug

hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> Anybody been to "Hunter Camp" and heard his story
> of the the mule and stick, it would make you sick.
> Also one of his minions called us Canadian
> railroaders "snow niggers". The USofA is great,
> just leave us Canucks alone, we can do quite well
> thank you. I survived a few years under "his"
> regime on BC Rail, really feel sorry for the CP
> guys.
> Doug

Hey, don't blame us for CP hiring him. Talk to the Board of Directors about that.

I simply can not understand the financial community being in love with CP stock. It closed today at US $214.67 while Union Pacific is $109.51. Just look at the vast difference in income vs UP and net profit of UP. UP should be the one with $214.67 stock price and CP should be the $109.51. To me it is just weird.

"At the editorial board meeting, Goehring said Harrison has been too concerned with the company’s profits and stock price, at the expense of serving customers." - See more at: http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/24180/#sthash.FCRoYZgI.dpuf

And if more politicians were arrogant enough to have the same opinion in regards to the taxpayers' money and how it is spent, or better yet-not spent or taken, we would all be better off. I would take that arrogance any day.

Unlike politicians, who dictate our tax rates, railroads have to earn their money which, in turn, causes the railroad to invest its assets where they return the most on investment. With dictated money, the government can spend foolishly on projects whereas a railroad can not afford to equip itself for maximum capacity. Thus the shortage of equipment, manpower, etc when the peek harvest shipping season arrives.

Show me an arrogant CEO and I can show you two arrogant politician in return.

Jay

tomstp Wrote:
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> I simply can not understand the financial
> community being in love with CP stock. It closed
> today at US $214.67 while Union Pacific is
> $109.51. Just look at the vast difference in
> income vs UP and net profit of UP. UP should be
> the one with $214.67 stock price and CP should
> be the $109.51. To me it is just weird.

The market capitalization of CP Rail is a lot less than that of UP. CP Rail is at roughly $37 billion while UP is at roughly $96 billion. Even though the stocks prices appear to make CP Rail the more valuable company the total numbers of shares outstanding, 177 million for CP Rail and 897.4 million for UP, multiplied by the closing share prices today give you the true value of the two companies.

CP Rail is worth roughly 38% as much as UP is. Even though the two "pies" are different sizes financially, it still goes to the number of "slices" and their value to determine the how valuable the total pie is in relation to others.

Jay

I'm not overly concerned that Harrison is arrogant. Heck nearly every truly successful person I have come across is to some extent, even some VERY nice ones. The fact that Harrison seems to be a total jerk isn't the end of the world, even tough I think that attitude does more harm than good. What DOES concern me is that he seems to be stuck in that 70's-80's mentality of cut, cut,cut, and now cut some more to get the stock price up. What you seldom if EVER hear from him is about is expansion, capacity improvements, more motive power, more crews to GROW the business. I wonder at the end of his tenure if CP will be any more prepared and equipped to grow the business and exploit new opportunities than they were when he got there.

Posted from Android

junctiontower Wrote:
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> What DOES concern me is that he seems
> to be stuck in that 70's-80's mentality of cut,
> cut,cut, and now cut some more to get the stock
> price up. What you seldom if EVER hear from him is
> about is expansion, capacity improvements, more
> motive power, more crews to GROW the business.

He isn't interested in the long-term viability of CP. He was hired for X number of years with financial incentives to build up the bottom line.
He is NOT working for CP. He is working for the hedge fund that bought control of CP. The more he can jack up the stock price, the more money he will make personally at the end of his contract (which I believe was extended by an additional year). The $$$$$$$ at the end of his contract is what he is after. He could give a bigger rat's backside about what happens the day after he leaves.
Unfortunately, that "return to shareholders at all costs" attitude is destroying many once-great businesses, not just railroads.

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

thehighwayman Wrote:
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> Unfortunately, that "return to shareholders at all
> costs" attitude is destroying many once-great
> businesses, not just railroads.

Like AT&T. Used to be a nice place to work, not anymore!

He's an arrogant pupus ass and a cutter. But did he not "grow" the CN? With purchases of other RRs (some shortlines?). I'm not defending the man, just asking the question. Some of his mgmnt practices indeed make me want to puke. And yes, I think that his role at the CP is different than it was at the CN....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/14 16:23 by Red.

PHall Wrote:
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> thehighwayman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Unfortunately, that "return to shareholders at
> all
> > costs" attitude is destroying many once-great
> > businesses, not just railroads.
>
> Like AT&T. Used to be a nice place to work, not
> anymore!

Different company. Today's AT&T is the old Southwestern Bell, which bought the old AT&T, then gutted it like a salmon.

many companies outlive their usefulness (Western Union Telegraph, Singer Sewing Machine, Woolworth, to name a few) but continue as shells or names on somebody else's business. Each of the three names put up gorgeous NY skyscrapers.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> many companies outlive their usefulness (Western
> Union Telegraph, Singer Sewing Machine, Woolworth,
> to name a few) but continue as shells or names on
> somebody else's business. Each of the three names
> put up gorgeous NY skyscrapers.

Singer became a big player in avionics and flight simulators. This part is now part of BAE Systems.

Ray

From EHH's perspective everything is coming up Roses. He could care less what the working men & women of CP think of him. He watches one and only one indicator of how he's doing....the last sale price of CP's stock. Based upon that reality he must be in great shape with Mrs. Harrison as he's bringing home lots and lots of moola which she needs to buy all those ultra expensive horses.

All is well in Edot land.

IMHO-Ross Rowland