One of the greatest things about writing the Jobacle blog and cranking out episodes of the critically-acclaimed Working Podcast, are YOUR e-mails. From the humorous to the downright scary, you guys always keep me on my toes with the messages you send in. Today I want to share an anonymous e-mail that was sent in from an employee at Sage Software. We here at Jobacle can’t vouch for the authenticity of the document below but have no reason to doubt it either.
First you’ll read some facts, then an internal memo, and then an employee’s suggestion. Again, everything after this sentence was sent in by a reader…
Mr. Ron Verni’s compensation:
ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $693,000
Bonus $744,000
Total Annual Compensation $1,437,000
STOCK OPTIONS*
Exercisable Options Amount 658,842
Exercisable Options Value $824,213
Unexercisable Options Amount 512,195
Unexercisable Options Value $451,055
Total Options Value $1,275,268
Total Options Amount $1,171,037
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Cash Compensation $1,437,000
Total Annual Compensation $1,437,000
Total Compensation $1,443,000
Mr. Verni’s latest email:
Most of you are already aware that the company has been working very hard to achieve our revenue and profit goals for Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07). In fact, many of you have felt the impact of closely watching expenses related to hiring, travel, and training. I appreciate all the steps that each of you are taking day in and day out.
I’ve had some feedback and questions over the last few weeks about our results announcement and our continued focus on driving revenue and saving additional expenses.
First, let me state clearly and unequivocally that Sage Software continues to grow and is profitable. That has never been in question. The objectives we are striving to meet are the financial goals we set for ourselves and which are the basis of the Sage Incentive Plan.
Last month, Sage’s results announcement demonstrated that our overall growth has been very good. That growth takes into account the acquisition revenues we’ve added this year by acquiring the Healthcare division and from our previous acquisition of the Payments Solutions division.
However, the measure we always use internally is our organic revenue growth, which measures how much our existing businesses are growing, and does not include the revenue from the acquisitions of the Healthcare or Payment Solutions divisions. And the difference between our overall and organic growth rates has created confusion, because the results announcement talks about the great overall growth of the business, but the part that we’re concerned about in terms of our internal performance is the organic growth.
We use organic growth as our internal yardstick because that is what our performance and spending plans are built upon each year. The logic is that you can never really plan for an acquisition to happen, and when it does, we will have paid for the acquisition growth in the acquisition price paid. So, it was not earned through our own internal actions and, therefore, not counted towards our internal results. Now, next year both the Healthcare and Payments divisions can be counted toward our organic growth, as we will have owned them for more than a year and, thus, will have driven their growth.
In other words, when we acquire a business, we grow by the simple action of paying for it and making it ours. When we develop our existing business, we grow organically – by our own hard work. We make that organic growth even stronger when we keep our costs in close check, ensuring we maintain strong profitability.
This year, our acquisition growth rate is terrific, but our organic growth is somewhat less than we had expected. Because of that, to meet our financial goals for FY07, we’re looking for ways cut expenses.
Our fiscal year-end on September 30 is within sight and this is the time of year when I typically communicate a call to action reminding everyone to focus on accomplishing our goals for the year. Please examine your work and your plans for the rest of the fiscal year. If you see something you think can generate savings, please tell your manager. It doesn’t have to be a huge savings. As the saying goes, every little bit helps. Those small savings really do add up!
Along with that, do everything you can to generate revenue for the company. For those of you whose regular job does not include selling our products, don’t forget about the Sage Software Ambassador program, designed to help you tell friends and acquaintances about our products and to reward you for those contacts that result in sales.
And, of course, I’m always interested in hearing whatever additional ideas you might have.
I thank you for your concern and attention to this and for your efforts to help make Sage Software the great company we all know it can be.
Best regards,
Ron
E-mail address removed
My Comments: Maybe he can cut $744K out of the expenses by giving up his own bonus.
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