Danny Detail, I've said before, as you did in your post, that I'm not into trying to run a company that I was invested in and that if I didn't like the way a company was being run, I'd just move on. However, I do think that, with human nature as it is, if anyone had the unfettered ability to set their own compensation, they would set it as high as their concience would let them. I have no doubt that if the person setting his own compensation never heard any dissent or disagreement, his concience would would exert a lot less restraint than if he did hear opposition. Additionally, there are certainly people whose concience would not bother them until the opposition was completely overwhelming.
You said "The reality is I would not take the judgment of anyone on this board, myself included, over anyone in IDCC management concerning any aspect of running the business, including the incentive compensation program". While that is a pretty absolute statement, I'd have to feel that there would be SOME POINT that you would agree that a line had been crossed when it came to management compensation. Is there any level you would consider to be excessive?
I believe that many of those that have expressed disapproval of IDCC's BOD new grants of potentially higher levels of compensation, myself included, are not just concerned about IDCC but rather about an ever growing trend thoughout the corporate world of corporate boards granting themselves more and more and more. Where is the line? I'm not sure but there are plenty of people who think that, in many cases, it has already been passed. Personally, I think they have every right to question the direction of things and hear an answer.
Finally, if someone thinks that, because I or someone else does not approve of the compensation plan, it puts me or them in the same camp as Corp Buyer (or anyone else's camp for that matter), I think that's faulty thinking. I can agree with a poster on this board about one issue and just as easily disagree on another. There could be some on this board that I might rarely agree with but it doesn't mean that I will automatically disagree with everything they think. Likewise, just because I agree with someone most of the time doesn't mean I will never disagree.
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