Firing Workers Won't Fix Motorola or Pfizer

Fire more workers.

That's the solution offered by the CEOs of Motorola(MOT) and Pfizer(PFE) to the problems at those companies. Shortly after announcing disappointing earnings for the December 2006 quarter -- a drop of 31% from 2005 for Motorola and a decline of 16% for Pfizer -- the companies announced plans to cut 3,500 jobs and 10,000 jobs, respectively.

Of course, both CEOs -- Edward Zander at Motorola and Jeffrey Kindler at Pfizer -- kept their jobs and their paychecks. According to Motorola's latest proxy statement, Zander received a salary of $1.5 million, a $3 million bonus and $2.3 million in restricted stock in 2005.

Kinder has been on the job only since last July. Before that, he was vice chairman and general counsel, with an annual compensation package worth $3 million, according to Forbes. He was brought in to revive a company that had slumped under his predecessor, Henry McKinnell, who received a retirement package of $180 million.

For this kind of money, investors -- let alone the workers who are being fired -- deserve something a little more imaginative as a turnaround strategy.

Cutting jobs has become a reflex, not because it works especially well at fixing the real problems at companies like these but because firings produce the kind of immediate earnings improvements that help CEOs keep their jobs.