So after the commotion that the apes caused we all filed into a room that fit 2,640 visitors, give or take. We received an electronic device for the voting exercise, and were welcomed by the panel of board of directors. All men.
The boss opened the meeting, which were held in French but with simultaneous translation. Pretty cool to be honest.
Then after a minute or so this noise reappeared but more like a drilling noise. The speaker noted it, but stated he would keep on going (rattling off numbers or whatever). After about two minutes two holes appeared in the ceiling and two SWAT-team-like black-clad men came gliding down just like in Oceans 11, holding posters with "save the orangutangs". According to their flyer it's something about Nestle using palm oil, which apparently harms the rain forests and especially the orangutangs.
What surprised me the most was that no intervention was made by Nestle. They were allowed to just hang there for about an hour displaying their message. Interesting. Made me think if the Nestle management was in agreement...?
Then any shareholder was allowed to raise questions, which 13 of them did. Two of them were loonies, one talking about how every Nestle product was tasting better in the 80's and another one attacking the company for unknown reasons. She wasn't very lucid. The others had valid questions which were answered reasonably I thought.
However, when it came to approving the salaries I was in disagreement. I just don't think that 10 mill CHF per year for one person is reasonable, even if the company generates good profit. Unfortunately 96% of the shareholders did not agree with me. You can't win them all.
And just for the sake of it I voted against reelecting the men to the board, but voted yes for the only woman who was. Gotta make a point, even if it doesn't lead anywhere.
After 4 (!) hours sitting down without drinks, food or more importantly nicotine the meeting was finished. And we had the most welcome apero, of course served with Nestle products. And a bag of freebies.
2 comments:
wow, I cant beleive you finally made the effort to cross the roesti-graben, went to beautiful welschland for the first time and spent 4 hours of your 1 day there in a meeting! (and a meeting of orangutang killers no less)
Killed two birds with one stone!
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