He had a lot more control over Apple than I suspect most CEOs have over their companies. How many CEOs wanted to do things but were stymied by executives or by boards?
And yes, Ben & Jerry's had to drop the 7x policy when they hired a full-time CEO who wasn't them. Another interesting thing about the company -- when they first went public, they sold stock only to Vermont residents. (I've actually been to the original Ben & Jerry's, in an old gas station, because I was dating a Vermonter at the time. Unfortunately it's now a parking lot.)
@Ron Ah the gap that exists between what should be and what is abetted by cronyism in the "old boy network." It's at play in government as well as corporations.
The board is supposed to act as a check against the CEO to make sure he or she is acting in the best interests of the company, but as you say, in reality, it really is an old-boy network (quite literally).
As for shareholder uprisings, strong shareholders do make themselves heard. Just look at the Yahoo situation for an example, but you're right not as often they should or could.
@Ron aren't the key board members usually hand-in-glove with the people holding the top positions in the company? Many companies can obscure much of what goes wrong internally. As for shareholders putting their foot down, I don't know if that ever happens outside of happy ending movies like The Solid Gold Cadilac.
Regardless, the job of any CEO at a publicly traded company is to protect and grow the company stock price.
@Ron, I think stock price is not always the best way to measure the performance of the CEO. I have seen many instances(Ex : Satyam computers) where CEO's artificially inflate the stock prices. So I believe job of the CEO is to grow the value/brand of the company rather than grow the stock price.
I think it's fairly standard practice for the CEO of a company undergoing bankrupcy processes to STILL pay its CEO quite handsomely -- even when the company is bankrupt. That's crazy, but it's how the system works sometimes.
@mhhfive, true system works like that. I think government needs to create a body which keeps track of the CEO's pay vs Companies growth to protect the interest of investor. This body should flag/take action on those companies which are paying higher salaries to its CEO's inspite of poor company performance.
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