Do CEO's deserve what they make?

[kitkat24]

February, 2004

CEOs Deserve What They Make

by Elan Journo

As millions of Americans watch the New England Patriots take on the Carolina Panthers, every minute of the game will be scrutinized, from all angles and with action replays. But, amid the cheers of victory and cries of disappointment, you won't hear a whisper of complaint from fans about the players' multi-million dollar salaries--$3.8 million on average for starting quarterbacks, and far more to exceptional players. No one doubts that the players have earned it, that the MVPs are indispensable to their teams, that it is morally proper to reward achievement.

But that spirit of justice disappears by springtime, when corporations file their financial statements. It is then that we learn how much America's CEOs got paid last year. In a ritual now sadly as commonplace as Super Bowl parties, CEOs are annually reviled as overpaid fat-cats. Astonished at pay packages as large as that of Dell Inc.'s Michael Dell--America's third-highest paid CEO in 2003--people ask themselves: "How can the work of a paper-pusher be worth $82 million a year?"

The answer is that successful CEOs are as indispensable to their companies as Super Bowl winning quarterbacks are to their teams. They earn their rewards.

How big an influence can one man have on the fortunes of the entire corporation? Consider the impact of Jack Welch on General Electric. Before his tenure as CEO, the company was a bloated giant, floundering under its own weight. Splintered into dozens of distinct and inefficient business units, GE was scarcely making a profit. Welch turned it around. He streamlined and reorganized the company's operations and implemented a sound business strategy yielding more than $400 billion worth of shareholder wealth.

In business, as in football, success requires long-range thinking. But CEOs must project a game plan in terms not merely of a single game or season, but of years and decades. A biotechnology company, for example, may spend 15 years and billions of dollars developing a new cancer-fighting medicine. Success is impossible without the business acumen of its CEO. For years before a marketable product exists, he must raise sufficient capital to sustain the research. What long-term business model will attract venture capital? Should the company accept partial short-term sponsorship from a large drug manufacturer in exchange for a modest royalty on the drug in the future--or risk going it alone and possibly running out of funds? It is on such decisions that a company's success is made--and lives of cancer patients may depend.

In order to be successful in the long range, the CEO's strategy must encompass countless factors. He must devise a game plan to grow the business in the face of competitors, not only from its own league, but from all the leagues in the world. The CEO calls the plays, but for a team of tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands of workers. All of the actions of every employee and every aspect of the business must be coordinated and integrated to produce the cars, computers or CAT scanners that yield profits to the company. It is the CEO who is responsible for that integration.

To successfully steer a corporation across the span of years by integrating its strengths toward the goal of creating wealth, requires from the CEO exceptional thought and judgment. Excellent CEOs are as rare as NFL-caliber quarterbacks. And in the business world, every day is the Super Bowl. There is no off-season or respite from the need to perform at one's peak.

Given the effect a CEO can have on a company's success, we can understand why their compensation packages can be so high. One way employers (like team owners) reward excellence is through bonuses. For many CEOs, bonuses amount to a large portion of their earnings. And as with quarterbacks, the CEO's pay package is calculated with an eye on the competition. Companies pay millions of dollars to a valuable CEO, one who they judge will produce wealth for the shareholders, in part so he will not be hired away by a competitor.

Americans can see with their own eyes the merits of star quarterbacks. Though the efforts of CEOs are not televised on Monday Night Football, their achievements are just as real and have a profound benefit to all our lives. Just as we admire a quarterback's athletic prowess and understand the importance of rewarding him accordingly; so we should learn to appreciate the work of successful CEOs and recognize that they too deserve every penny of their salaries.

_____________________________________________________________________________________ Elan Journo is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

[CRHSrn]

i'm not a ceo myself, but in my opinion they DO deserve what they make. like the article says, " The answer is that successful CEOs are as indispensable to their companies as Super Bowl winning quarterbacks are to their teams. They earn their rewards." it's just nice to see someone other than an athlete making really good money, b/c let's face it ... although there is skill involved, there's usually not a lot of 'mind power' involved'. it's nice to see education being rewarded as opposed to an athlete who left college in his sophomore yr to join the NFL draft.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Do CEO's deserve the outrageous amounts of compensation they receive? In two words: NO WAY. I don't care how successful one may be at growing a business; NOBODY deserves tens of millions of dollars a year, plus stock options and all the other perks of being the top dog. (BTW, I don't think entertainers, models, or sports figures deserve this kind of money either.)

Truth be told, I think America's priorities are rather mixed up. I'd rather see people who do something that actually benefits humanity make the big bucks: police officers.......doctors......NURSES.........teachers........social service workers........even government employees. Heck, I think the PRESIDENT is underpaid for all the responsibility he carries, and I don't like the guy one bit!

[warrior woman]

I'm with you Marla!! I'm sick to death of hearing all the whining that various CEO'S do, while firefighters/paramedics/cops and other people who work in dangerous professions can barely keep their famlies fed and live a comfortable life. While corporate moguls get tens of millions to shine a seat with their azz. That goes for the rediculously overpaid athlete's as well. My God folks, it's a BALL GAME for crying out loud!!! No one's going to live or die over it. But the people who are responsible for helping to save lives make meager wages by comparison. Our priorities our truly screwed people.:stone