Published in The Wall Street Journal September 30, 2009 by Peter Weinberg
The debate about bonuses and Wall Street pay rages on, and for good reason. Compensation is a complex issue that is essential to managing systemic risk. The asymmetrical structure of pay packages—a “heads I win, tails I win less” approach—was wrong. But overly prescriptive government intervention to solve the problem poses its own challenges and might not help us get the incentives right, either. So what can we do?
Published in Management Issues September 20 , 2009 by Brian Amble
Between 2007 and 2008, the US stock market fell by 37 per cent and 2.6 million American jobs disappeared. Amid the economic chaos, the vast majority of companies performed far worse in 2008 than they did 2007 and many of their staff suffered the consequences.
Published in Business Week September 30, 2009 by Jena McGregor
A majority of directors—the people who actually make decisions about CEO pay packages—believe CEO pay packages need trimming. In a significant shift from its 2006 survey, fifty-nine percent of respondents to a University of Southern California Marshall School of Business survey released earlier this month said there should be decreases in executive benefits and perquisites. Another 52% said retirement packages were too high, while a full 73% felt severance pay should be reduced. In 2006, just a minority of directors agreed with these statements (23%, 25% and 32%, respectively).
