My heart bleeds for the soon-to-be impoverished partners at Goldman Sachs.
Although many executives working in Britain ranked below partner-level earn much more than £1m each, the 100 UK-based partners are capping their 2009 pay and bonuses at £1m each. Hard times indeed.
But if Wayne Rooney and a select number of other Premier League players can earn in the region of £5 million (yes, spell it out, five million pounds) per year, perhaps the Goldman Sachs partners may feel undervalued.
Ask another question, however, and a different view emerges. Don't ask if either a Goldman Sachs partner or a Premier League football player deserve the money they are paid. Ask if you could do what they do - and with the same results.
I doubt that there are many of us who could put on Rooney's boots and, as he did this weekend, score four goals against Premier League opposition (OK it was only Hull City!), but what would be the result if we slipped into the pinstriped suit of a Goldman Sachs banker? Would any of us be unable to make even one or two correct investment decisons?
The usual argument that is wearily paraded by the banks is that they have to pay such astonishing salaries to attract and retain the talent.
There is a different view:
The talent myth assumes that people make organisations smart. More often than not, it's the other way around.
Think about it!
Goldman Sachs UK partners cap their pay at £1m each New Yorker: The Talent Myth
Read the complete post at http://hrcasestudies.blogspot.com/2010/01/goldman-sachs-wayne-rooney-and-talent.html
Posted
25 Jan 2010 8:52 AM
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