Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Corporate barons must share the pain of the peasants

Financial Times

Published: May 22 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 22 2009 03:00

From Mr Peter Taylor.

Sir, Your report on the Shell shareholders’ rebellion (May 20) signals, I hope, a long overdue re-alignment between shareholders and management.

Since similar revolts have shaken RBS, BP, Heineken and others, the corporate balance of power is surely shifting from the barons to the peasants. Now the key reform to achieve is a direct link between executives’ remuneration and the success of their business.

In particular, executives who hope for bonuses should first agree to share the pain as well as the gain. Here the model can be private equity, where managers have a significant amount of their own wealth tied up in the business.

No better incentive exists to make sure executives have what Warren Buffett calls “skin in the game”, so that their interests are brought back into alignment with those of their outside investors.

Peter Taylor,
Duke Street,
London W1, UK

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.