Originally Posted by
Jetjok
The thing I find so interesting is that here in the US, our corporate definition of "long term" or "long range", relative to planning, is "through next Thursday", whereas in many other countries, most notably, Japan, their "long term" is just that... Looooong. With that in mind, we seem to accept that our CEO's and senior management of companies, are entitled to as much compensation as they can ring out of the board of directors, who, themselves are members of that very same elite club. In Japan, CEO's of major corporations usually earn some multiplier of their lowest paid employee, and it's not a lot of Yen. I believe most Japanese CEO's earn less than 3 million dollars.
All that said, regardless of what Fred Smith earns, he's the right guy to be running FedEx, and as long as he can provide the appropriate leadership and vision, in my mind anyway, he's worth every penny he gets.
JJ
A recent article in USA Today...
Kyocera founder Kazuo Inamori criticizes U.S. CEO excesses - USATODAY.com
More specifically, see Inamori's thoughts on high CEO compenstation in the second to last question of the interview:
Q: Sounds like you are a critic of high CEO compensation. Doesn't their pay reflect free-market forces?
A: A lot of Americans use that rationale. But there are only a handful of exceptional athletes who attract tens of thousands of fans, thus creating enormous revenue for the team. A star player who possesses that rare talent should receive an appropriately higher salary. It is the same for an actor who stars in a blockbuster film. It is different for the CEO of a company. Profits are created by the hard work and collaboration of the workers and other levels of management. For the top echelon to receive such high compensation, as if they alone were responsible for the profits, is unreasonable. We should possess the consideration and humility to provide all employees who work for the company with an appropriate share of the gains. That is lacking in today's capitalism or free-market economy, and its absence is responsible for the growing disparity, discrimination and injustice in society.