讓CEO天文數字薪酬回到地面
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates goals with a leap and a pose — arms extended downwards, chest thrust forward — that enrage the footballer’s critics. Suggest, however, that his self-regard or pay are unmerited and you are likely to be laughed off the terraces — especially after last week’s hat-trick for Real Madrid that won the team a place in the Champions League semi-finals.
C羅(Cristiano Ronaldo)進球后用跳躍和一個姿勢——雙臂下伸、胸部前挺——來慶祝，這激怒了這位足球運動員的批評者。然而，假如你提出他的自尊或薪酬是不應得的，那麼你可能被人嘲笑——尤其是在他最近大顯身手、把皇馬隊(Real Madrid)推入歐冠聯賽(Champions League)的半決賽之後。
Chief executives’ assertions of their skills is even more vexing. As last week’s shareholder revolt against Bob Dudley’s 20 per cent pay rise at BP showed, tolerance for their posing is paper-thin. Investors’ impatience may erupt again at Anglo American’s meeting this week and at other FTSE 100 groups later this spring. CEOs may be paid as much as, or more than, Ronaldo, but, with vanishingly few exceptions, they are not in his league.
首席執行官們對自己技能的斷言，甚至更令人迷惑。正如上週股東反對英國石油(BP)掌門人戴德立(Bob Dudley)加薪20%所展示的，眼下人們對CEO們擺姿態的容忍程度非常低。在本週的英美資源(Anglo American)會議和這個春季更晚時候的其他富時100指數(FTSE 100)成分股公司會議上，投資者的不滿情緒或許會再度爆發。CEO們的薪酬或許等於或高於C羅，但幾乎無例外的是，他們在技能上無法與他相提並論。
Excessive pay is the biggest obstacle to restoration of trust in business. This was true in 2010, when Sir Richard Lambert, then head of the CBI business association, warned it was so out of line that CEOs “risked being treated as aliens”. It is even truer now, when they have long since left our galaxy and are heading at nanocraft-speed towards the next.
薪酬過高是企業重新贏得信任的最大障礙。這種情況在2010年是屬實的。當時，英國工業聯合會(CBI)時任總幹事理查德•蘭伯特爵士(Sir Richard Lambert)警告稱，薪酬過高的程度如此嚴重，以至於CEO“可能被看作外星人”。如今這種情況甚至更加屬實：CEO們早已離開我們的星系，正以“納米飛船”(nanocraft)的速度飛往下一個星系。
No single solution will bring them back to earth. Here are four that, in combination, just might:
沒有什麼單一辦法能把他們拉回地球。以下四個辦法加在一起，或許會有效果：
1) Reduce complexity. Chief executives seem just as baffled by the mechanics of complicated pay deals as outsiders are. Worse, the ambiguity of plans dulls their incentive effect. A recent report by the Institute of Business Ethics made this point using the example of BHP Billiton — the mining company reports two figures for its chief executive’s pay, one based on UK standards, the other on international accounting rules. Remuneration committees, the institute says, “often do not really know the value of what they are trying to hand over, not because they are lazy or don’t care, but because it is impossible to work out”.
1) 降低複雜性。CEO們似乎像外人一樣對複雜薪酬安排的機制感到困惑。更糟糕的是，薪酬方案的模棱兩可，削弱了其激勵效果。商業道德研究所(Institute of Business Ethics)不久前的一份報告以必和必拓(BHP Billiton)爲例指出了這一點。這家礦業公司對於CEO的薪酬報告了兩個數字，一個是基於英國規定，另一個是基於國際會計準則。該所稱，薪酬委員會“往往並不知道他們要提供的薪酬方案的真實價值，這不是因爲他們懶惰或者不在乎，而是因爲算出一個數字是不可能的”。
2) Make transparency work in favour of restraint. Companies should always benchmark pay and targets against peers. But this can trigger the Lake Wobegon effect, where, as in Garrison Keillor’s fictional town, everyone wants to be paid above average.
2) 讓透明度支持剋制。公司應當始終將薪酬與基準對比，並參考同行水平。但這可能引發沃比根湖(Lake Wobegon)效應——因爲在蓋瑞森•凱勒(Garrison Keillor)的虛構小鎮裏，每個人都希望拿到高於平均值的薪酬。
Publishing pay ratios — as US companies will have to from next January — may help offset the impact, according to a study in the latest Journal of Management Accounting Research. Participants considered CEO pay less fair when told its ratio to employee earnings was many times higher than for the sector. The same perception made them less likely to invest in that company.
最新一期《管理會計研究雜誌》(Journal of Management Accounting Research)的一項研究表明，公佈薪酬比率——從明年1月起，美國公司將必須這麼做——或許有助於抵消這一影響。當被告知，CEO薪酬與員工收入之比高於行業水平許多倍時，受訪者傾向於認爲CEO薪酬不太公平。這一印象也導致他們更不可能投資相關公司。
3) Link CEO pay more closely to actual performance, good or bad. Alex Edmans of London Business School says directors should think less about levels of pay and more about how sensitive it is to what actually happens to the company. He cites one study that shows investing in companies where chief executives own lots of stock, and shorting those where they do not, earns between 4 and 10 per cent a year.
3) 使CEO薪酬與實際業績更緊密地掛鉤，無論業績是好是壞。倫敦商學院(London Business School)的亞歷克斯•埃德蒙斯(Alex Edmans)表示，董事們應當更少地思考CEO薪酬水平，而要更多思考CEO薪酬對公司實際表現的敏感程度。他援引的一項研究顯示，買入那些CEO持有大量公司股票的公司、做空CEO並未大量持股的公司，每年可斬獲4%至10%的額外回報。
4) Reinforce the remuneration committee. As chair of the Barclays committee, Dame Alison Carnwath opposed a 2011 bonus for chief executive Bob Diamond. She was overruled and had to defend it at the bank’s annual meeting. Investors are now heaping pressure on Dame Ann Dowling, who heads the committee at BP. Her discomfort at the 59 per cent vote against Mr Dudley’s pay rise was plain. Compensation committees need to stand firm against chief executives and chairs. Where an extreme pay plan is out of tune with what the company achieved, directors need to use their discretion to cancel bonuses not yet paid, or claw back those already issued.
4) 強化薪酬委員會。作爲巴克萊(Barclays)薪酬委員會的主席艾莉森•卡恩沃思夫人(Dame Alison Carnwath)反對2011年的CEO鮑勃•戴蒙德(Bob Diamond)獎金方案。她的意見被否決了，而且不得不在該行的年會上爲這筆獎金辯護。如今，投資者正在對BP薪酬委員會主席安•道林夫人(Dame Ann Dowling)加大施壓力度。她顯然對59%股東投票反對給戴德立加薪感到不安。薪酬委員會需要在首席執行官和董事長面前堅持立場。當某一極端的薪酬方案與公司業績相悖時，董事們需要利用他們的自由裁量權撤銷尚未支付的獎金，或者收回已發放獎金。
The BP revolt overshadowed the story earlier this month of Richard Pennycook, who has led Co-operative Group’s turnround and insisted on taking a 60 per cent cut in his base pay. It “reflects the type of organisation we are”, Allan Leighton, the mutual’s chairman, said. More companies should think what sort of values are reflected in their pay policies — and what impact those policies have on their fragile public licence to operate.
英國石油CEO加薪方案遭反對，令本月早些時候理查德•彭尼庫克(Richard Pennycook)的故事失色不少。彭尼庫克領導英國合作集團(The Co-operative Group)扭虧爲盈，卻堅持要求公司削減自己基本工資60%。這家互助機構的董事長阿蘭•雷頓(Allan Leighton)表示，這“反映出我們是一傢什麼樣的機構”。大多數公司應當思考一下，它們的薪酬政策反映了何種價值觀——這些政策對公司賴以經營的脆弱公共執照產生了何種影響。
One last point. Do not try these remedies out on Ronaldo, unless you want to lose him to a rival. The implicit threat that a sought-after executive may leave often cows boards into agreeing extravagant pay deals. It should not. Directors overstate such risks by roughly the same amount that they overrate the talents of limelight-hogging chief executives.
最後一點。不要在C羅身上嘗試這些措施，除非你想把他推到對手球隊去。搶手的高管或許會離開，這種隱含的威脅經常嚇得董事會同意高得離譜的薪酬安排。不應該是這樣。董事們高估了喜歡出風頭的CEO的才能，也以差不多相同的程度高估了CEO跳槽的風險。
