Directors: value for money?
Six or seven-figure directors' bonuses have always caused a hullabaloo and provided easy headline fodder for the business pages.
After all, to most people, the figures involved are often so massive that they seem hard to justify even when a company has been doing well.
Company directors themselves, however, have generally kept quiet on the subject, making this week’s Accountancy Age/Reed Accountancy Personnel Big Question interesting reading.
Just over one in two finance chiefs, the survey has found, think companies should refuse to pay under performing directors their bonuses, even where they are contractually entitled to them.
These findings take the steam out of any argument that the current spate of anger over the Marconi affair is based just on the views of a few embittered shareholders and the understandable reaction of Joe Public to the possibility of such large sums being paid out.