Resource Library Insights

Innovation has long been critical to a company's sustained success. Yet many companies fail to innovate meaningfully and consistently" and compensation programs may be partly to blame for many firms' failures.

Barry Sullivan answers three questions: Has TSR peaked? Is EVA gaining steam? And what's next after TSR?

Many companies have a one-size-fits-all mindset toward metrics, which makes it hard to use that judgment when allocating resources from the top.

History suggests that many industries periodically reach inflection points, where factors other than profits, returns, and share price really matter. They generally occur when the business case for major change becomes clear and cannot be ignored. It's at these points where compensation can help signal change.

Executive pay has long been in the spotlight for shareholders, boards, management teams, and commentators alike. More recently, the connection of executive pay outcomes with company performance has taken center stage.

The most effective executive compensation programs today strike the balance across key stakeholders — boards of directors, management teams, and shareholders. For many companies, performance-based equity has become the principal component of executive pay.

It's rare these days to scan a business journal or newspaper without reading mention of innovation as a, if not the, key success factor for businesses today. Innovation is so top-of-mind for today's business leaders that it ranks as one of the top five CEO challenges in 2014 — along with human capital, customer relationships, operational excellence, and corporate brand and reputation.

Best-in-class decision-making is what every compensation committee wants. How do committee members move themselves from feeling overwhelmed by the tactical to making the tactical seem routine? This article by Barry Sullivan explores specific processes compensation committees can utilize to foster best-in-class decision-making.

Most companies are not getting the most out of their pay programs because they are not sufficiently deliberate when considering pay prominence.

Greg Arnold and Barry Sullivan of Semler Brossy provide insight on balancing pay prominence in executive compensation programs.

Many companies are incorporating relative total shareholder returns into incentive plan designs. This article explores two fundamental, but little discussed, issues with all relative total shareholder return metrics that need to be taken into consideration before addressing more detailed design concerns. Read the entire article (PDF) written by Todd Sirras and Barry Sullivan as it appeared in WorkSpan.