Last year, I introduced a weekly series called “CEO Gaffe of the Week.” Having come across more than a handful of questionable executive decisions when compiling my list of the worst CEOs of 2011, I thought it could be a learning experience for all of us if I pointed out apparent gaffes as they occur. Trusting your investments begins with trusting the leadership at the top — and with leaders like these on your side, sometimes you don’t need enemies!

This week, I have no choice but to again select the CEO of Carnival , Micky Arison.

The dunce cap
I’m not quite certain how many more times I’m going to have to do this, but Carnival’s CEO, Micky Arison, is, without question, leading the charge for worst CEO of the year in my book.

Carnival, the highly embattled cruise ship line, has a remarkable streak when it comes to mechanical problems with its ships. In January last year, the Costa Concordia crashed off the coast of Italy, tragically killing 32 people. Just weeks later, the Costa Allegra had a fire in its generator room that left the ship adrift at sea. The Allegra was later taken out of service and scrapped for parts.

Fast-forward to mid-February 2013, when passengers on the Carnival Triumph dealt with a fire in the engine room that left the ship adrift at sea near Mexico. With toilets overflowing and food scarce, it took five days for the boat to finally make it back to Alabama. On March 9 the Carnival Elation announced that it had a steering issue and was towed back into port by tugboat. On March 13, the Carnival Dream noted it was stuck in port at St. Maarten because of generator problems while passengers reported toilet and power issues. Finally, just a day later, the Carnival Legend reported that it was having sailing speed problems. 

Tallying this up, that’s six mechanical problems for Carnival since January 2012 compared to zero for Disney , NCL (owner of Norwegian Cruise Lines), and Royal Caribbean . In fact, what you might anticipate would be a negative for the cruise sector as a whole has actually turned into a positive, with passengers eager for a vacation simply choosing to avoid Carnival’s fleet of disaster-prone ships in favor of the above three. Disney has benefited from advanced bookings which have shielded it from any negative sector headwinds. Royal Caribbean, which hits many of the same routes as Carnival, is bound to gain share from Carnival as it deals with this PR nightmare, as well as gain traction in emerging-market routes catering to China. Norwegian Cruise Lines followed this trend as well, tacking on $46.2 million in additional net income in 2012 compared to 2011 as its brand presence grew. 

To the corner, Mr. Arison
But wait — there’s more!

If it wasn’t bad enough that Carnival has moved well beyond the “coincidence” stage of its mishaps, Micky …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance