To make these kinds of extreme rewards work, you need two capabilities. One is a very clear understanding of what impact is derived from the role in question (which requires a complementary awareness of how much is due to context: Did the market move in a lucky way? How much of this was a result of a team effort or the brand of the company? Is the achievement a short-or long-term win?). Once you can assess impact, you can look at your available budget and decide what the shape of your reward curve ought to be.
