What I Say on Say-on-Pay Will Pay, I'd Say

OK, maybe I read a few too many Dr. Seuss books to the three little ones over the past 10 years.

As we enter what will be an extremely busy November-December executive and equity compensation season, one theme will dominate:  say-on-pay.  This is not just an executive compensation topic.  It has impact on every equity compensation plan and professional.  I've had a lot to say about it to hundreds (maybe thousands) of equity compensation professionals over the past few months.

Even before the busy September-October conference/webinar season, I posted my blog of 26-June, reblogged on 23-July by Broc Romanek of CompensationStandards.com titled "33 Reasons Why Your Company's Say-on-Pay Vote May Go Sub-50% in 2013."  Read it. It's a fast read. You will see your company's compensation practices on that list.

Then, I was pleased to be on a panel with Seth Rosen of KPMG and Jack Marstellar of Pay Governance at Global Equity Organization's National Equity Compensation Forum on 20-September.  Our topic:  Looking Back and Forging Ahead.  The full title was way longer.  It was about say-on-pay.

Next, I presented "The Effects of Global Say-on-Pay:  Coming to Your Stock Plan in 2013" to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of GEO on 25 September.  This references my book chapter in GEOnomics 2012 "Say-On-Pay's Impact on Equity Compensation Design:  Horse or Camel?." (free download)

Then, my webinar for Equity Administration Solutions, Inc. (EASi) on 18-October, with the same title as the recent GEO presentation, took the topic further and explored how fast-moving trends outside the US will drive US practices in the coming year. So much had happened in the 3 weeks since, that there was a new dimension.

Interestingly, all of this ties into the presentation I've been doing with Terry Adamson of Aon Hewitt, "Value and Valuation: Understanding Long-Term Incentive Data." We presented at WorldatWork's Annual Conference in Orlando in May, again at NASPP's Conference in New Orleans last month (with Billy Vitense of Starbucks), and now headed to  do the presentation later in November for a joint meeting of NASPP's and GEO's Boston Chapter on 16-November.

I am pleased to send the presentation from any or all of these to you if you are interested. If you deal with equity compensation (which if you're reading this you probably do) you will need to know this stuff, in the coming months.  It will pay to know it, even if I do say so myself.  Oh, the places you'll go...