Executive Compensation

Executive compensation is one of the primary tools that a CEO uses to drive his or her organization. It sets an overall tone, creates a level of urgency, establishes accountability, delineates priorities, underlines what is important, and establishes rewards and consequences for performance.

In essence, executive compensation balances corporate and business unit financial performance with a corporation’s ability to reward, retain, and attract top management talent.

At The Delves Group, we work with senior management and boards of directors to:

  • Assess the effectiveness of their executive compensation program and ensure that existing tools are used appropriately to achieve specific executive compensation objectives.
  • Design compensation tools that are aimed at desired results and calibrated to provide competitive pay for competitive performance.

Our Philosophy

A company and its shareholders are ultimately ill-served if executive compensation focuses too much on the question of “how much” to pay top executives, rather than on how best to motivate and reward broad management teams for meeting tough performance standards that build sustainable shareholder value.

In addition to working with public and private going concerns, we often work with companies involved in a financial transaction (mergers and acquisition, IPO, and spin-offs) or a turnaround (restructuring and bankruptcy).

Our Offerings

There is no such thing as “ideal” executive compensation and performance measurement framework. What works for Boeing does not necessarily work for Microsoft. Instead, there are a series of decision points that need to be considered including firm culture, its managers, and its positions in the Company business life cycle. As such, our executive compensation offerings include:

  • Competitive compensation analysis, including review of base salaries, annual incentive, and long-term incentive payout
  • Annual incentive pay design
  • Long-term incentive pay design, including cash-based, equity-based and phantom equity-based design
  • Performance measurement frameworks
  • Goal setting and incentive pay calibration analysis
  • Performance management frameworks
  • Employment contract review
  • Change-of-control and IRC 280(g) analysis

Read our case studies to learn how The Delves Group has helped companies follow more effective compensation practices.