Reward and punishment

HOW should you pay people? As little as possible needed to retain them? As much as possible - without bankrupting the business - to stop them leaving? Both these require judgment that, correct at one moment, will be wrong the next. Moreover, the tittle-tattle of gossip is nowhere more virulent than over pay. Possible withholding of Lloyd Blankfein's Goldman Sachs bonus over the 1MDB scandal was more newsworthy than the Trump-Kim Jong Un Potential Extermination Meeting.

Encouraging the right type of behaviour

In Cerebos Pacific Ltd, I had an unusual system. I paid people what they asked. There were, needless to say, certain conditions. The most important was that everyone's wages, bonuses, stock options and terms, including mine, would be displayed for all employees to see. Transparency is what the world is asking for. Didn't people object? Yes, for three weeks. Then they realised how well off they were.