Friday, August 28, 2009

Bonus or No Bonus

Executive compensation is in the news again. And we also have a new pay czar in place in the States.

Before the companies’ annual meeting, their shareholders are inundated with proxy statements. Many companies need more than 60 pages of write-ups to inform their shareholders on how much they have paid their top executives. It also includes what deferred compensation their executives are entitled to upon their retirements. For the ones who are taking home a seven-figure pay package annually, I wonder why their employers still have to worry about their retirements!

As far as the bonus is concerned, in some cases, it is an effective tool used to motivate employees. But when a company decides to pay bonuses, whether in cash or in restricted stock option, to its executives, to be fair it should also include all of its non-executive staff in the same scheme. After all, it is the rank-and-file staff who rake in revenues to enable the company to pay salary, bonus, rent and its other financial obligations.

Since bonuses to employees will not be a thing of the past, and the company boards had failed in reining in the exorbitant executive pays, the shareholders will have to rely on the government agencies, such as the pay czar’s office, to ensure the future executive compensations, including bonuses, are pegged at a reasonable and sustainable level. - Ayee

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Raison D'etre

Something I saw on "60 Minutes" the other night was very upsetting.

I did not see the entire program but I did see a fisherman cutting the fins from a struggling live shark. I would call the person a liar if he or she told me the shark was not in excruciating pain when someone cut its flippers off with a sharp instrument. According to the reporter, after the fisherman got the fins, he threw the injured catch back to the sea to die.

Animal science is Greek to me. But many will agree with me there is a reason why there are so many other beings around us. In the animal kingdom including ourselves each species plays a crucial rule in the ecosystem. But so far it seems to many of us that we, the humans, have done more than our shares to harm and to endanger other animals living in our midst.

On the big white sharks, they are scavengers of the sea. They preyed on the diseased and the weak to keep the population of the marine life in check. On rare occasions they inflicted serious injury to humans. When they did, it is because we chose to encroach the beaches where sharks normally gathered.

In China, shark fin soup has been a delicatessen for years. I remember long ago, our late aunt prepared for us a clear chowder that was made of shark meat, bak choy and vinegar. She had also made soup with shark fins. While I welcomed the well-prepared foods, I could never tell if foods with shark parts improved my health more than other less mundane fares.

Today we have so many choices as far as our daily breads are concerned. We are also more conscious of the way how our foods are gathered. Therefore, it is high time that we say NO to shark fin soup for good. - Ayee

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

On Health Cares

Like many publicly-held corporations, North America’s medical providers are becoming albatrosses. The new health care bill that the US government is about to sign into the law has a lofty goal. But without reforming the basics in the health care system before hand, the new law to cover more Americans is just another piece of expensive legislation.

Since governments do play a crucial role on how the health cares are dispensed, they do have the responsibility to

- educate their citizens so they know how to take better care of themselves. Education will certainly help us make more informed decisions that can affect our life style choices.

- ensure health care providers are better equipped and taught to provide their learned services. They should be held responsible for the errors they made on patients. Besides apologizing to the wronged patients, the errant doctors must return to school to be re-trained.
- provide medical cares through smaller hospitals. Services from a smaller organization can be more personal that improves the communications between patients and doctors. Small entities are more transparent. So we can see better as to who did what. Since medical care costs are rising at an exorbitant rate, a smaller hospital can be more efficient and cost less to operate.

- disallow the "de-bundle" practice in medical services. This method of costing health therapies does help increase hospitals’ revenue, but requires expensive and diligent manpower to maintain accurate records.

Now good health to everyone! - Ayee