‘Boss From Heaven’ Brings 6,400 Chinese Employees To French Holiday
If greedy CEOs who corner the lion’s share of the company’s income by their multimillion compensation package give bosses a bad image, a Chinese board chairman added to the growing number of executives who show they genuinely care for their workers. Li Jinyuan, chairman of the Tiens Group in China, is now with 6,400 employees of the company in a French holiday.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that to bring more than half of the firm’s 12,000 employees to France, they flew in 84 commercial jets. The bulk of the group, expected to spend $18 million during their vacation, arrived in France on Tuesday.
Their sheer number alone earned the group a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest human phrase when they grouped into letters that read “Tiens’ dream is Nice in the Cote d’Azur” that was visible from the air.
The directors were booked in five-star hotels, while the rest of the delegation stay in three- and four-star hotels. La Parisien reports that the group visited the Louvre museum and the resort town of Nice on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, Galeries Lafayette, a luxury department store, closed to the public and allowed the Tien employees to shop as the only customers. Later that day, they watched the Moulin Rouge cabaret show at Palais Nikaia.
The French trip is Li’s way of celebrating the company’s 20th anniversary, founded in 1995. The original choices were Paris, London and Rome. When Atout France, the French Tourism Development Agency, found about Li’s plans in December, they convinced him to pick France.
Tiens has business interests in biotechnology, health management, e-commerce, hotels and tourism. Li is in Forbes’ list of world’s billionaire in 2011.
The group added to the 85 million visitors who visit France yearly. Tourism revenues contribute to 7 percent of France’s GDP.
Li’s generosity appears to be part of a growing number of executives who are more sensitive to their employees needs beyond giving workers crumbs in the form of annual pay raises that pale in comparison to executive compensation. In April, Gravity CEO Dan Price, another boss from heaven like Li, cut his pay by 90 percent and the company’s profits to ensure all employees earn at least $70,000 annually in the next three years. Price cut his pay from $1 million to $70,000 a year and would use Gravity’s $2 million profits, reports CNN.
To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au
