checkSURE Comment - Fat Cats Pay

checkSURE Comment - Fat Cats Pay

'Fat Cats Pay' is on the tips of the tongues of people who wouldn't normally be associated with bashing business. It is big news this month and is likely to be a hot topic for some time to come. For some, this is a Fat Cat opportunity to knock big business and the underlying risk-reward philosophy that underpins the free market system.

In reality, there is a strong argument for paying Fat Cats Fat Salaries as long as they are accountable for their performance to shareholders. Not only are Fat Cat salaries an incentive for the thousands of employees below board level toiling away in the corporate engine rooms of our major companies but they are increasingly required to induce individuals to take Fat Cat jobs in the first place.

This week's edition of Investors Chronicle makes this contribution to the Fat Cats debate: "And it's not just efficiency that requires top bosses to be paid well. So does justice. Being chief executive is a horrible job. You have to spend your time in meetings with other top bosses. You have to spout inanities about strategy, branding and positioning. And you have to convince yourself, and others, that a single individual can control a company operating in dozens of markets." What a job description for Fat Cats!

The Fat Cats work list also includes: dealing with politicians who have little understanding of business, grappling with regulations that are being devised in Brussels, pump primed in Whitehall and emphasised through increasing layers of bureaucracy at regional or local levels and being asked for informed comment on everything from the state of Britain's education system to the value of Britain joining the euro!

In fact when we see Fat Cats they usually look harassed and stressed. While the average office worker can leave their pile of paper on their desk and return home to the normal pressures of family life in 21st century Britain, Fat Cats have to carry an enormous burden of responsibility both morally and legally. Anyone with quality business experience will know that few Fat Cats enjoy making people redundant or shutting down businesses. Such publicity is bad for business. Yet in a fast changing world, no one has a job for life - including Fat Cats.

All of which brings us back to the principle of accountability. With the availability of services such as checkSURE there is no excuse for shareholders not to keep tabs on the Fat Cats who are honestly trying to make a go of the businesses over which they rule. The emergence of the Internet and increasing levels of shareholder activitism means that information that used to be hard to obtain let alone analyse is now available instantly. This means that there is now very few places to hide for all those who aspire to take on roles where they will disparagingly be called 'Fat Cats.'

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