Cornflour, targets are set by boards and they are answerable to
shareholders. The largest sharedholers are superfunds, who hold shares
on behalf of everyday people like yourself and Examinator. For if
your pension was going backwards, many of you would be the first to
complain.

Managers salaries simply don't matter in the bigger scheme of things,
for the number of people involved is tiny and the amounts very small,
in relation to the billions at stake. Let's say that Telstra paid
their top few people nothing and wanted them to work for free.
With say 10 million customers that might add up to 1-2$ per year,
per customer. OTOH a good CEO can save a company like that billions
and good CEOs are not going to work for a gold watch.

I'm the first to complain about Telstra, but I also realise the
magnitude of the problems that they face. I was actually pleasantly
surprised in March, when an electrical storm did huge damage to
Perth, including killing 50 of my sheep which were huddled under
the wrong tree. A bloke came out and fixed the problem on my line,
the same day as I rang up. When I got to chat with him whilst testing,
it came out that Telstra had flown him and some of his mates
over from Sydney, to help with the Perth repairs of the lines.
That is not cheap and I was impressed that they were trying so hard.

Telstra's big problem still remains that they have different divisions,
which don't communicate with each other. One division
does not know what the other is doing, so when you get passed across,
you land up in no man's land. But that originates back from the days
of Govt ownership.

Sol at least fixed their billing division, you get one bill for all
services, which is clearly far more efficient. But their big
problem remains just maintaining profits, because more and more
young people are dumping their land lines and do it all by mobile.

Telstra's biggest expense remains spending billions each
year on upgrading infrastructure.

HEY GINX..let's u and me have a wallow in the mud of 'slime a capo' :)

Check this out mate.

http://www.generationim.com/about/team.html

See who is the chaiman!

Now..*see this*

http://www.climateexchangeplc.com/investor-relations/shares-in-issue-top-10-holders

Go down to number 5 on the list.. see any connection ?

What does 'Climate Exchange' do ? how does it make money ?

What does Al Gore 'do' ? how does he make money ? :)

There you go.. next time you rock up to "Resistance" at Druids house you can all have a free freeding frenzy on a 'Green' Watermelon in the form of Al Gore.

WAIT...there's more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Strong

Check him out..... The EArth summit of 1992 was a pre-cursor to Kyoto.
Kyoto means 'carbon trading' and lots and lots and lots of $$$$

Now see this!

http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/content.jsf?id=67

scroll down to the 8th name... *BINGO*

Do you see it all now ?

Yabby,
The main problem with Telstra is that it appears to to adopt a scale for it's customer service. Provide excellent technical service but an equally atrocious after sales service. I wouldn't say that several 1 hr or more calls are acceptable. Top this with five SR-1 numbers for the same product and yet still no product after two months. Having told them the correct address many times & yet they still say unconfirmed address after each time they tell you that the item has been posted. Have you ever tried to call Telstra to get answers to a query ? They don't even have a number to call !
I appreciate what the technical personnel are doing within Telstra but their customer service has to count among the worst in all industry.

Individual, I actually happen to agree with you on that one. I had a
major drama trying to replace a modem, was told it would be sent,
it never arrived.

I've actually had follow up calls too, from management, trying to
evaluate their service and what they are doing. It seems to me that
they have a number of issues, which have yet to be resolved.

Communication between different parts of Telstra with one another.
Quality of some of the staff they hire, some are not the brightest.
Staff training, more is needed, certainly on their internet side of
things

Sorry Yabby I had to laugh at this one..."answerable to shareholders". Not the mum and dad shareholders who have little power to cap executive salaries, who have no power re compulsory acquisitions and in truth have no decision making power. They just provide the monopoly money.

Greed might be endemic to many groups Yabby including consumers and shareholders, but you must concede that no other group compares with the greed of the big end of town. To dismiss it as just another tall poppy syndrome ie. "those evil nasty corporations" is to miss the point of the systemic problems within our capitalist economy.

Apparently Four Corners tonight is doing something about the failure of the banking industry in the US. Worth a watch especially for those who think the system is working.

It is madness when we are talking about billions of dollars in profits these days and some still moaning about the cost of labour. Labour has value. There are many jobs where the minimum wage is barely a living wage - yet the focus is still on obscene profits.

*but you must concede that no other group compares with the greed of the big end of town.*

Not so Pelican. Nothing I've seen compares to the greed for political
power. Politicians sell their souls for it. Most of the business
community, actually have some integrity.

*and in truth have no decision making power. They just provide the monopoly money.*

Clearly you don't go to shareholder meetings :) You would be amazed,
how much individual shareholders sometimes have to say. When Wesfarmers owned sawmills, the greenies would turn up with their
5 shares or whatever and would protest, AGM after AGM. So Wesfarmers
sold their sawmills, problem fixed.

*It is madness when we are talking about billions of dollars in profits these days and some still moaning about the cost of labour. Labour has value.*

So does money. That trillion $ in super savings that workers have,
they want a return for it, to pay their pensions. Or are you suggesting that we cut pensions instead? What return do you expect
on your savings, given that inflation runs at 3-4%?