One quarter of Lockheed executives take buyout offer

[mike r]

Source: Washington Post

Bethesda-based contracting giant Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that more than 600 executives have taken the company up on an early-exit program that provides financial incentives in exchange for leaving.

The total represents about 25 percent of all company executives and follows Lockheed's move to cut its workforce nationally by about 10,000 since the beginning of last year...

The move is one of many by Lockheed as well as other defense contractors to cut spending in anticipation of a reduced Pentagon budget.

Boeing announced Tuesday it is consolidating its military aircraft business from six divisions into four as of Oct. 1. As a result, the company said, it will reduce its workforce, starting with about 10 percent of its executive positions.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090804316.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. i expect a case for the invasion of Iran will be manufactured by next week...

these clowns have cashed in long enough...

[JDPriestly]

10. Blue_Tires, I've been watching the build-up too. We are poised.

It's really scary.

[Demeter]

2. 600 Executives is only 1/4 of the total?

If they have more than 60, they are feather-bedding.

[zipplewrath]

5. 106,000 employees

That leaves them about 1800 people, director and above, in a company of about 106,000 employees. Puts management at about 1.8%. Not particularly huge, when you realize what directors are. They needed this down sizing, and there may be more soon. Their customer is broke.

[bossy22]

7. its not that the DOD is broke

its more that their has been extreme cost growth to many major programs. the F-35 has seen cost estimates go from 50 million to 96 million per plane; they know if that price doesnt go down closer to 50 million that the u.s. will cancel many planned orders.

But again, i can't blame lockmart, Nrthgrmn, beoing etc.. totally- its also the DOD requirements that caused this problem. Since the end of the cold war the U.S. has gone from procuring "great equipment" to procuring "gold plated" equipmen; i.e. all-in-one super weapons. These systems tend to take years to design and are so complicated that the price goes through the roof.

the "MIC" doesnt work the way many people think it does; it doesnt always start at the contractor level but at the government level- govt puts out a proposal for some swiss army knife of a plane and the contractors attempts to comply. Then the govt is surprised that such plane is so expensive, but it took so long to develop that their is no other alternative so the govt is forced to buy it or lose the capability completely.

[zipplewrath]

8. Contracting is complicated

The companies do alot of lobbying, but in the end the DoD is at fault for alot of this. Careers are made on acquisition programs. That's effectively a "conflict of interest".

[bossy22]

9. very true

as much as i dislike gates for being strategically inept, he is right when it comes to acquisition reform

[No Elephants]

14. Not only the DOD. Congress and the President are supposed to be

watching the taxpayers' collective back. Probably Sec. of Defense, too.

[No Elephants]

13. Not sure what you're saying. In a corporation, no officer is above the board of directors.

They answer only to the shareholders, if anyone, and even more rarely, to the law.

[zipplewrath]

18. That's not the kind of directors they mean

there are directors, and they are the lowest form of employees that have the authority to obligate the corporation to contracts. Vice Presidents are above them. Various different "presidents" are above those and there are a few CEO, CFO, and some other "C's". A large number of the 600 were assuredly directors.

[tammywammy]

19. I think future downsizing will come as contracts aren't renewed

Stevens has been talking about stream lining LM for months now, before this voluntary retirement was announced. At least his version of stream lining isn't just chop a bunch of people off at the bottom, he was also successful in getting directors, VP, and above to leave too.

[Owl]

3. Nice for the executives... wonder what the buyout terms were.

[wilt the stilt]

12. it's not as great as it looks

For the "middle managers" who are in their fifties it will be hard to ever find another job. That is the death knell. No real discernible skills. I met a guy who took a package from AT&t and he never found another job. It's really fools gold.

[No Elephants]

15. True, but plenty of workers in their 50's get fired with no buyout at all.

When unemployment and savings run out before OASDI kicks in, ugh.

[wilt the stilt]

16. I completely agree

being in your fifties and being a middle manager is basically dead man walking. If your in your fifties and you are in a corporation you better be in a revenue producing position(sales).

[Alcibiades]

4. More companies need to do this

Most management doesn't do anything except cash checks and stand in the way of getting actual work done. They spend their time at sporting events on the company dime, "entertaining clients" (read: haute cuisine meals, strip clubs and drinks on the company dime, tax deductible, or course), and attending useless seminars to learn the latest corporate jargon and phony-baloney theory at hoity-toity destinations.

You could fire 90% of top management in the US, and productivity would go way up.

[Sherman A1]

6. Precisely

You said it right!!!!

[jtrockville]

11. Right on. When RIFs are needed, start at the top. Good for Lockheed.

[GreenTea]

17. These 600 are the hardcore republicans of the corporation - Who love war & weapons for profit and

big government! You know OUR taxes for big government contracts for the corporations but republicans preach small government for the people, workers & small businesses and their social needs.

[L0oniX]

20. I will never feel sorry for those who made their living off the backs of the innocent dead.

[LawnKorn]

21. Stand by for a marked increase in GOP campaign managers and lobbyists for right wing corporations

These 600 executives won't let their skills at lying, manipulation, and exploitation go to waste. They will be at the forefront in the mix advancing the party of lies, manipulation, and exploitation.