Men's Wearhouse創始人被掃地出門背后的故事
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????喬治?齊默被The Men's Wearhouse公司掃地出門了！全美國似乎都聽到了這個令人震驚的消息。喬治?齊默在供職于這家男裝零售商的40年里曾無數次在電視廣告中信誓旦旦地保證，客戶一定會喜歡他們的樣子。 ????這家公司最初發布的解職聲明非常簡潔，沒有做任何解釋，致使不少客戶和粉絲紛紛在社交媒體上表達憤怒情緒。隨后，它提供了一個更加詳盡的解釋。本質上是聲稱，齊默無法接受他不再執掌自己創辦的公司這個現實——齊默于2011年把CEO一職移交給了道格?尤爾特，但依然擔任執行董事長。這份新聞通稿還指稱，他一直尋求將公司私有化。齊默隨即聘請了一家公關公司，發表了一封言辭激烈的公開信。 ????此后，The Men's Wearhouse持續成為新聞主角。這家公司先是收購了另一個男裝品牌艾堡德(Joseph Abboud)。10月份，規模較小的競爭對手Jos. A. Bank出價23億美元，對它提出收購要約。這項提議遭到拒絕，The Men's Wearhouse公司轉而實施所謂的反噬防御策略，打算以15.4億美元的價格收購Jos. A. Bank。 ????但齊默本人卻陷入了沉默。他解聘了那家公關公司，自6月份以來，他一直未就他的離職或未來發表任何公開評論。直至現在。 ????12月初，齊默接受了《財富》雜志的電話專訪，以下是經過編輯的交談記錄。在這次交談中，他坦率地回顧了這次解雇事件，他對Jos. A. Bank合并交易的看法，以及為什么他現在似乎比任何時候都更受歡迎。 ????《財富》：你是如何獲悉The Men's Wearhouse打算不再聘請你擔任執行董事長？ ????齊默：大約10天前，我收到了一封言辭極其苛刻，用意極其卑劣的電子郵件。電郵里說，我的職位和薪酬“在這個時候”將保持不變。隨后，他們就開始了一系列小動作，基本意圖就是要把我趕出我的辦公室。我當時非常痛苦，跟我實際上被解雇時的感受沒什么兩樣。原因在于，到了這個節骨眼，我已經非常清楚即將發生什么事情。 ????根據此前的安排，那個周三要召開一次股東大會，隨后將在周四召開董事會會議。所以，我在周一晚住進了酒店。幾位董事分別來找我談話，解釋第二天即將發生的事情。我不會被立刻解職，他們還是為我提供了一個有名無實的職位，以及一筆還算公平的薪酬。但我絕對不愿意為昔日的下屬工作，他們現在竟然要求我出任我當初雇傭他們擔當的職位。所以我拒絕了。 ????第二天的年度股東大會上，我原本將被重新選舉為公司董事，因為連續數周的代理人投票已經結束。于是，他們表示，除了不再供職于公司之外，他們還希望我辭去董事一職。如果我不從的話，他們將推遲股東大會，這些人也的確這么干了。接著，他們發出了新的代理人投票委托書。在這份委托書上，我沒有獲得董事提名。 ????被解雇時，我沒有獲得一分錢的遣散費。他們甚至收繳了我的電話，終止了我的保險。 |
????It was the firing heard around America. George Zimmer was out at The Men's Wearhouse (MW), after 40 years and countless television ads in which he guaranteed that customers would like the way they look. ????The company's initial termination announcement was terse and without explanation, sparking social media outrage among some customers and fans. It then provided a more detailed explanation, essentially alleging that Zimmer was unable to accept that he was no longer CEO of the company he founded -- Zimmer handed the reins over to Doug Ewert in 2011, but remained executive chairman -- and alleged that he had been working to take the company private. Zimmer hired a PR firm and responded in a blistering public letter. ????Since then, The Men's Wearhouse has continued to be in the news. First for buying Joseph Abboud, and then when smaller rival Jos. A. Bank (JOSB) offered in early October to acquire the company for $2.3 billion. That offer was rebuffed, with The Men's Wearhouse then offering to buy Jos. A. Bank for $1.54 billion, in a so-called Pac-Man defense. ????But Zimmer went silent. He took that PR firm off retainer and has not made any public comments about his firing or future since June. Until now. ????What follows is an edited transcript of a phone conversation, held with Zimmer last Thursday. In it, he discusses his termination, his thoughts on a Jos. A. Bank merger, and why he seems more popular now than ever before: ????FORTUNE: How did you learn that The Men's Wearhouse was planning to fire you as executive chairman? ????ZIMMER: I got an email about 10 days earlier, which was extremely harsh and mean-spirited. It said that my job status and compensation would remain the same "at this time." Then they basically began throwing me out of my office, and that was as traumatic as when I was actually terminated because, at that point, it was pretty clear what was happening. ????We had a scheduled board meeting on a Tuesday followed by a scheduled shareholder meeting on the Wednesday, so I checked into the hotel on Monday evening. A couple of directors came to see me individually to explain what was happening the next day. I wasn't being summarily discharged, but instead they offered me a figurehead position, with fair compensation. But I elected not to work for people who I had originally hired to work at the company, who now just wanted me in that sort of role. So I declined. ????I was going to be reelected director at the annual shareholder meeting the next day, because the proxies had already been out for weeks. So they then said that they wanted me to resign as director as well as be terminated as an employee, and if not they'd postpone the shareholder meeting, which is what they did. Then they sent out new proxies in which I wasn't nominated ... ????When I was terminated I got no severance. They even took my phone and cut off my insurance. |
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