Poor baby

Plagiarism punished? Well, maybe. Raytheon's CEO, William Swanson, is apparently not quite the management guru he claims to be. According to Colin Barr, author of the column, "The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week":

The Waltham, Mass., defense contractor docked Swanson's pay in a plagiarism scandal. Swanson will have to struggle by without a raise on last year's $1.12 million salary, and he'll miss out on 20% of his restricted stock award.

The board delivered this swift wrist slap after it figured out that the rules in the CEO's widely read pamphlet, Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, indeed had been written down -- but by other people. Media reports indicate Swanson's supposedly homespun observations borrowed, without attribution, from authors including the late UCLA engineering professor W. J. King, humorist Dave Barry and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"Thwow him down vewy woughly, centuwion." (Pontius Pilate in Monty Python's Life of Brian) No raise? 20% less stock award? Guess he won't be able to buy Cape Cod for his retirement villa after all.

The thing about plagiarism is that it is a matter of honesty. What else is he not telling his board? What else is he not telling his shareholders? What else is he not telling the Pentagon?

Colin Barr cites part of Swanson's apology:

"This experience has taught me a valuable lesson -- new Rule No. 34: 'Regarding the truisms of human behavior, there are no original rules.'"

"Not for Bill Swanson, anyway," says Barr. Wonder where Swanson got that one?