Employee Ownership Award and Executive Pay

The FED recently announced a new program, the 2009 Shared Capitalism through Employee Ownership Award. The Award is being accomplished in partnership with the Center for Business Education at the Aspen Institute and the Employee Ownership Foundation.

The purpose of the award is to identify innovative research in business or business-related disciplines concerned with the impact or effectiveness of shared capitalism, broad-based ownership strategies, and participative workplace practices. This new program will I believe encourage quality academic research in employee ownership and help continue to spread the word.

If you know anyone who might be interested in applying for this program, I hope you will pass on this information.

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I saw an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal by Judith Samuelson and Lynn Stout titled “Are Executives Paid Too Much?” The article puts forth the idea that our economy is in a mess not because of too-high executive salaries, but because executives were paid too much to do the wrong things.

I think the correct approach is not only salary, but bonuses that reward long-term performance of their businesses — by that I mean a year and beyond. The focus on short-term results is a mistake and it is not going to get our nation out of its current financial problems.

It is my impression that each day the economy is going deeper into a hole. Am I right or am I wrong? Do you think a depression is far behind?

Please take a look at my new post on Xconomy.com about the amount of stock entrepreneurs and company owners should try to retain to maintain control of their organizations. I would be interested in hearing what you think the answer is.

— Bob