For the last word on why compensation is not all about cash, even at the highest levels, and why understanding the subtleties of incentives is important, we have the CEO of a successful European company responding to scholars conducting a compensation survey. He explained why, for him, certain intangibles are more important than cash: I’d rather be worth 100 million euros, have fun now, and enjoy people’s respect when I am the senile chairman of my firm than be worth a billion and get paid fat dividends by a little **** with a Harvard MBA, who runs my firm and lectures me at board meetings.
