|
|
The real reason for the recession revealed: worker productivity slam-dunked by March Madness. Bear Sterns' collapse carries its own lunacy. Jack Dolmat-Connell, CEO of Waltham, MA-based compensation consulting firm Dolmat Connell Partners, writes that the BS collapse "just added more fuel to the ever growing executive compensation wildfire - an issue that all public companies in America are going to have to respond to." But he does not blame BS's "appropriately and responsibly designed" compensation program. Rather, he is concerned with "the consistently-biased media intensifying public distrust of corporations and CEOs, and inciting further criticism of executive compensation." Bias? Why should the media not shout at ex-Bear Stearns' CEO James Cayne's outsized pay? Or torch Chuck Prince and Stan O'Neal straw dummies? Thankfully, we are not alone in fanning the flames. Shareholders with greater visibility on how CEOs are being paid courtesy of the SEC's new disclosure rules, blow their own wind. In his book Corpocracy, activist shareholder Robert Monks charges that companies today are too beholden to making a profit—and calls on shareholders to get more involved. Somebody is listening--shareholders have filed 90 “say on pay” proposals so far this year, up from 52 last year, according to Proxy Governance, a proxy voting consultant. "Given that investor and media scrutiny of executive compensation programs is only going to increase in the near future," continues Dolmat-Connell, "now is the time to take action. Every public company should ensure their executive compensation program is reasonable, appropriate, and fully disclosed to shareholders." Because of our scrutiny? What if we weren't scrutinizing?
RELATED ARTICLES
March 2008 
Table of Contents Executive Compensation
CEO Blog: Executive Compensation
NO COMMENTS YET
ADD YOUR COMMENT
|
|
