Compensation expert: more action needed.

• Position: Business Briefs

The recent report issued by The Conference Board's Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise is "headed in the right direction, but does not go far enough," says Bruce Ellig, an executive compensation expert and author of The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation.

"Missing in the report is any comment about the needed restraint of executive perquisites," Ellig says. "Compensation committees should be focused on pay-for-performance plans. Perks are pay-for-position, and do nothing to create shareholder value."

Needless to say, news coverage of gold-plated perks given to executives like Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International, and former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch have created a public uproar. While little of that happens at the CFO level, there was a marked escalation in perks during the 1990s as companies fought to attract--or steal away--top talent.

"Beware of supplementing a lavish lifestyle that might lead to a culture of greed," Ellig continues. "Treating CEOs like kings may lead them to act like kings... Perks promote distance from everyone else in the organization...