Tone at the Top: Ethics and Integrity

David N. Swinford, president of Pearl Meyer & Partners, discusses compensation best practices with Alison A. Winter, compensation committee chairperson at Nordstrom; Josh Weston, honorary chairman , Automatic Data Processing and a director of Russ Berrie & Co., Gentiva Health Services, and J. Crew; and Debra Perry, director at MBIA and Conseco.

In Part 2 of the series, the group discuss how the change in dynamic tension between management and the compensation committee has changed the compensation process.

In Part 3 of the series the group contemplates the future of the compensation committee with heightened regulatory intervention, like Barney Frank's bill on shareholder access.

In Part 4 of the discussion David, Alison and Debra talk about important business subjectives, other than financial performance, relating to stakeholders' compensation.

Part 6 focuses on balancing the compensation package with short term and long term compensation and how this forces management to make the right sacrifices along the way.

In Part 7 of the conversation, the group agrees that every compensation committee should have the ability to reserve discretion, rather than rely strictly on numbers.