Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble
by eloisant on Friday February 16, 2018 @01:20PM
(#16394460)
The thing is Steve Jobs was taking a $1 salary.
Even if you can find a great CEO with a great plan with your company, I don't think paying him 10M$ instead of 500k will make him more efficient or be necessary to retain him.
Also I don't think the CEOs salaries are a results of competition for the best (like tech workers), but CEO being generous with themselves (and their peers as they're all in each others' board).
Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble
by bluGill on Friday February 16, 2018 @04:28PM
(#16396524)
You are correct, but that doesn't invalidate anything I said. If someone is a great CEO for you, and they tell you they will retire to a less stressful job unless you pay them $10m it is worth it, even though you know next year (and $10m richer) they will retire. Their success over that one year should more than make up the money you spend.
Of course this assumes that one more year of development is required for the next CEO to be ready. Great CEOs try to have a replacement (or several) in training at all times.
Note that I'm assuming a great CEO - most are not great.
Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble
by mratzloff on Friday February 16, 2018 @09:53PM
(#16398640)
Jobs demanded a $40 MM private jet and large equity increases from the board.
Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble
by eloisant on Saturday February 17, 2018 @12:14PM
(#16401572)
I'm pretty sure he was well compensated, but still - the success he had at Apple was not a consequence of his compensation.
And I don't think he was more expensive than the previous Apple CEO (Gil Amelio?) or any alternative they had at the time.
Business schools have studied this. One of the strongest indications of a great CEO is how long they worked at the company before becoming CEO. The best CEOs started 20+ years ago and worked their way up the ladder (ie first job out of school). The worst CEOs were hired externally for the CEO role. There are exceptions that you can think of, but when a company brings in an outside CEO that should be a red flag: they don't have the internal development in place to make someone who knows the business the leader. Sadly investors have for the most part not caught onto this. (Warren Buffet knew is in the 1950s which is why he buys companies for their great leaders and keeps the leaders in place)