Third Quarter 2015

Goal Setting: Meeting

Stakeholder Expectations in
an Increasingly Dynamic and
Complex World

T
he perennial challenge of setting meaningful, yet
realistic, incentive-plan goals has become ever
more difficult in an increasingly complex and
rapidly changing business world.
Companies now must also accommodate the growing
Seymour Burchman
Semler Brossy Consulting Group
importance of a range of stakeholders. Historically,
incentive plan goals have largely focused on meeting
the needs of shareholders and driving total share-
holder return (TSR). Yet, contemporary thinking has
companies taking a more holistic view, one that
explicitly recognizes the concerns of employees,
Mark Emanuel customers, suppliers, regulators, and the community
Semler Brossy Consulting Group at large. (See The Growing Range of Stakeholders
on page 7.) Although shareholder expectations likely
remain primary, meeting the expectations of other
stakeholders is fundamental to generating long-term,
sustainable shareholder value creation.
The need to get it right by gauging performance
in ways that reflect stakeholder concerns has been
further heightened by the introduction of annual say
on pay, in which goal-setting rigor is subject to regular
and increasing scrutiny by institutional investors and

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proxy advisers such as Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass-
Lewis & Co. LLC.
With so much at stake, what is a company to do?
On the following pages, that question is answered in two ways. First, the article
describes three sets of criteria to help guide companies in establishing mean-
ingful goals that serve to meet key stakeholder expectations. Next, two cases are
provided to illustrate how these criteria can be used in varying situations.

CRITERIA TO GUIDE INCENTIVE GOAL SETTING

The three criteria for effective goal setting in an increasingly dynamic and
complex world are:
1 | Adherence to stakeholder expectations
2 | Accommodation of organizational capabilities and the business environment —
the factors that affect the company’s ability to meet expectations
3 | Accordance with benchmarks and standards of success.

1. Adherence to
The Growing Range of Stakeholders
Stakeholder Expectations
In its simplest form, this first set of Contemporary thinking highlights the need to
criteria asks, “What should we do to consider a broad spectrum of stakeholders in
a way that extends beyond the traditional view
compete in this new world where that shareholders are the singularly relevant
sustainable success requires that we stakeholder. Several factors have driven this
shift in philosophy:
satisfy a broad range of stakeholders?”
The objective is to define what is ❚❚ The war for talent has gone global and
required to advance key shareholder innovation-fueled startups increasingly
compete against established companies
priorities, enable the company to for the best and brightest.
meet its various talent needs, as ❚❚ The pervasiveness of the Internet and
well as meet the requirements of mobile devices has made the acquisi-
tion and retention of customers more
customers, suppliers, regulators and difficult because they are increasingly
the community at large over the knowledgeable of a company’s products,
other customers’ level of satisfaction and
short, intermediate and long terms. competitors’ offerings.
To simplify the explanation of this ❚❚ Supply chains have also become global
and suppliers have become as funda-
element of the framework, the focus
mental to product cost and quality as
has been narrowed to two of the in-house operations.
company’s primary stakeholders — ❚❚ Meeting the ever-broader requirements of
regulators has become a necessity, with
shareholders and employees.
fines or more onerous penalties a conse-
❚❚ Shareholders. Traditionally, quence of not doing so.
shareholder priorities have ❚❚ The clout of the community at large has
grown as interest groups and govern-
been narrowly defined in terms ments demand more of corporations.
of creating shareholder value Ignoring these outsiders heightens the
potential for reputational risk.
(i.e.,  through stock price appre-
ciation and dividends). However,

Third Quarter | 2015 7

 issuers are encouraged to go both broader and deeper to focus on the key
drivers that influence sustainable TSR. This helps provide greater guidance to
the management team, focuses on aspects of performance that are more directly
controllable and enhances line of sight. Some of the drivers of TSR that might
be addressed are:
❚❚ Financial. The key financial measures that influence a company’s stock
price performance.
❚❚ Strategic. The strategic priorities that enable the company to build sustainable
competitive advantage and remain viable over the long term.
❚❚ Operational. The aspects of operational excellence (e.g., timeliness, reliability,
quality) that are fundamental to both financial results and the achievement of
strategic priorities.
❚❚ Employees. An organization’s talent goals should be defined comprehensively
to address the entire employee value proposition that enables the company to
attract, retain and motivate the desired talent (e.g., direct and indirect financial
rewards, affiliation, work content, career opportunities). The value proposition
should explicitly reflect the company’s unique talent needs. For example, a
struggling brick-and-mortar retailer making a foray into e-commerce might
appeal to expert-upon-hire e-commerce talent through incentive plan designs
that are sufficiently insulated from the results of the company’s brick-and-
mortar operations.

The focus in this article is on direct financial rewards. These need to be

sufficiently competitive to enable attraction and retention of key talent and be
appropriately structured to motivate and engage this talent to meet the expecta-
tions of the other stakeholders.
Balancing the shareholder and employee expectations with organizational capa-
bilities and the business environment requires that, over time, goals should result
in performance and payouts that:
❚❚ Are sufficient to generate returns above the company’s risk-adjusted cost of
capital and, in turn, drive shareholder value creation.
❚❚ Align relative pay and performance with peer companies.
❚❚ Represent a fair sharing of the value created between executives and shareholders.
❚❚ Are sufficient to keep executives retained, motivated and engaged.

2. Accommodation of organizational capabilities and the business environment

that affect the company’s ability to meet expectations
At its core, the second set of criteria asks, “What are we able to do?” The objective:
setting realistic goals given the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as well
as the operating environment’s constraints and opportunities.
Organizational capabilities include the company’s talent, brand, infrastruc-
ture (e.g., systems and core processes, tangible assets, especially those that are

8 WorldatWork Journal
proprietary), and intellectual P roxy Advisers — the Shadow Stakeholder —
property. These include what is and Meeting Their Priorities

available in-house and/or through

❚ ❚ Further complicating the challenge for issuers
alliances and partnerships. has been a heightened focus on the rigor of
goal setting by another stakeholder in today’s
The assessment of the business
say on pay-centric world — proxy advisers. ISS
environment is meant to iden- is the most influential of the proxy advisers,
and in recent years, the frequency of ISS’
tify the various headwinds and
commentary on the rigor of goal setting has
tailwinds that exist outside the increased significantly.
company. This assessment covers ❚ ❚ To date, ISS has largely taken an overly
simplistic approach in its assessments of goal-
a whole spectrum of factors, setting rigor. Its assessments focus primarily
including macroeconomic health on whether the goal (at target) increased year-
over-year relative to the prior year target and/or
and trends, competitive influences, actual results and whether payouts have been
technological advancements and consistently above target. This approach often
lacks in-depth analysis and consideration of
regulatory developments. the company’s specific circumstances, but
The more detailed the assessment frequently carries meaningful weight in ISS’
final vote recommendation. This element of ISS’
of the organizational capabili- review is particularly troublesome for companies
ties, the more valuable this set of in turnaround situations, which might reasonably
be expected to lower goals year-over-year to
criteria can be in the goal-setting ensure continued engagement and motivation
process. What opportunities of employees.

exist to improve the company’s ❚❚ ISS has signaled that more is likely on its way
with this topic. ISS’ 2014 policy survey indicated
support of the long-term strategy? that 43% of investors believe that if performance
Over what timeframe? At what goals are significantly reduced, target award
levels should be modified commensurately
cost and benefit? (Institutional Shareholder Services 2014). In
The same is true for evaluating October 2014, ISS announced its acquisition of
Incentive Labs. In its press release, ISS (2014)
the business environment. What touted Incentive Labs’ proprietary analytical
is a reasonable or likely range tools for assessing the rigor of performance
targets and “measuring the efficacy of the link
of potential changes to environ- between pay and performance.”
mental factors over the established ❚❚ Given ISS’ present (and possibly increasing)
timeframes and what is the associ- focus on goal setting, the ability to describe
the rationale and rigor underlying goals in the
ated impact on the business? This Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A)
process may begin as a qualitative is of the utmost importance, particularly for turn-
around companies. To this end, the framework
exercise, but should ultimately can serve as a foundation to structure more
become a quantitative one. nuanced and thoughtful disclosures for share-
holder and proxy adviser constituents.
It is helpful to examine a range
of possible scenarios to better
understand and quantify the
impact on results for the different organizational capabilities and external head-
winds and tailwinds. (See Figure 1 on page 10.)

3. Accordance with benchmarks and standards of success

In its simplest form, this means “What does good performance look like on a
long-term, sustainable basis?” These benchmarks are the references against which

Third Quarter | 2015 9

FIGURE 1  Illustration of Scenario Modeling

120

100

85

Downside B4 B3 A4 A3 Baseline A1 A2 B1 B2 Upside

Risk Oppty.

Organizational Capabilities External Factors

A1 – Productivity improvement (+) B1 – Economic recovery improves sales trend (+)
A2 – Defer technology investment spending (+) B2 – Decline in raw material costs (+)
A3 – New product risks (-) B3 – Increased regulatory costs (-)
A4 – Accelerated hiring to fill key positions (-) B4 – Competitors’ increased promotional activity (-)

the business measures itself and others measure it. They endure over the long
term and through economic cycles. Common references include:
❚❚ Historical performance of the company (e.g., average, best ever) and peers
(e.g., median, top-quartile)
❚❚ Best-in-class performance among the company’s own business units (where
there are comparables) and other relevant benchmarks for key parts of the
value chain, regardless of industry (e.g., firms that are exceptional in marketing
and sales, supply chain, manufacturing, managing inventories, serving
customers, etc.)
❚❚ Analyst expectations for the company and peers/industry
❚❚ Theoretical limitations (e.g., outcomes if existing processes are optimized).
These standards should be measured over a time horizon that is sufficient
to encompass multiple economic cycles and reflect the underlying timeframes
for key stakeholder expectations. When used for goal setting, these standards
should be considered with respect to the amount of value that is created by the
organization when achieved (i.e., the extent to which returns will exceed the
risk-adjusted cost of capital).
The most effective standards are established through rigorous benchmarking
in a multi-staged process. This process starts with the high-level financial
drivers of value creation (e.g., top-line revenues, bottom-line earnings, returns),
but then delves deeper into the second-order operational and strategic factors
that drive financial performance. Not only will this process inform goal setting
within a given incentive plan, but it will, by establishing a connection between

10 WorldatWork Journal
drivers, also help ensure consistency across the company’s various incen-
tive plans. In addition, it will help identify opportunities for performance
improvement and the actionable decisions that executives can make to drive
value creation.

CASE STUDIES
Using each of these three criteria, individually and in sum, will help provide a
structure and discipline to ensure that the goal-setting exercise meets the needs
of the company’s key constituents.

CASE STUDY 1: A CYCLICAL COMMODITY BUSINESS — TRUCKING

Presenting challenge
Trucking and freight services are largely commoditized, and as a consequence,
business results are highly correlated with the macroeconomic cycle. Because
of the cyclical and unpredictable nature of the business, the actual operating
environment may vary significantly from the assumptions made during the
budgeting and planning process. Incentive payouts may thus vary widely inde-
pendent of management’s contributions to results. If gross domestic product
(GDP) growth is unexpectedly robust, achievement of the original goals may
warrant a smaller payout; if GDP growth is unexpectedly weak, achievement
of the original goals may warrant a larger payout. The trucking company’s
challenge in this case study was to design an incentive program that reflected
the uncertainty of the goals and ensured that payouts, on average, were fair
to shareholders.

Criteria 1: Stakeholder expectations

Given the cyclical nature of the business, key stakeholder expectations in trucking
are highly dependent upon the time horizon. Over the short term, shareholders
expect management to be flexible and responsive to a cycle-dependent operating
environment. Shareholders also expect that executives will manage the asset base
and costs at a level that is sustainable throughout the cycle.
Talent needs are equally cycle-dependent. Management needs to be retained
and engaged in a down-cycle when incentive plans are typically underwater.
Management also needs to be motivated to stretch for incremental opportuni-
ties in an up cycle when incentive plans are likely to be a layup. Thus, it is
critical to ensure that goals have an appropriate level of stretch and executives
have sufficient line of sight to the levers that can be pulled to drive results
in various market environments.
Over the long term, shareholders want management to optimize the asset base
and maximize operational efficiencies to ensure shareholder value is created
over the entire cycle, and multiple cycles, by generating returns that exceed the
company’s cost of capital.

Third Quarter | 2015 11

Criteria 2: Organizational capabilities and external factors
The cyclical nature of the external operating environment is an important deter-
minant of top-line performance over both the near and longer term. Because it is
difficult to predict when the cycle might turn, the actual operating environment
may not reasonably be understood at the time the goals are set.
In addition to top-line growth, the ability to build value for shareholders is
largely a function of asset efficiency (e.g., fleet and supporting infrastructure) and
the development of effective systems (e.g., manpower planning, fleet management
and logistics) that enable the company to operate at the lowest possible cost while
meeting the needs of customers.

Criteria 3: Benchmarks and standards of success

Because top-line and bottom-line growth are both highly correlated with GDP
growth, the company focused on operating leverage as the basis for developing
a benchmark. Analysis of company and peer historical results and extensive
financial modeling indicated that, over the cycle, the operating leverage could
and should achieve a 3% premium in operating profit growth above GDP growth.

The Solution
Given the uncertainty associated with forecasting GDP growth, the appropriate-
ness of annual goals is more accurately judged at the end of the year when actual
GDP growth is known. Therefore, the company introduced a formulaic approach
for the annual plan whereby goals were adjusted after the fact to reflect how
the actual operating environment varied from the assumptions underlying the
budgeting process. (See Figure 2 on page 13.) Adjustment criteria were established
based on the sensitivity of results to assumed GDP growth.
This approach to goal setting recognized that exogenous factors are a key driver
of results and that management’s response to any given market environment is
an element that can be measured and rewarded. It also provided a mechanism
to provide relief (and improve retention) in a down cycle and require additional
stretch in an up cycle. Further, it avoided the need for blanket discretion and
reduced the incentive for management to sandbag the budget.
To complement the goal-setting solution, the company incorporated a number of
operational and non-financial goals in the annual incentive plan to encourage the
behaviors and decision making that would allow the company to generate returns
in excess of the cost of capital. Cost per ton shipped and equipment downtime
were included to determine improvements in fleet efficiency and management.
Measures of capacity utilization were used to assess whether managers were taking
the actions necessary to “right size” the business to the market environment. These
measures were seen as being controllable in the short term and across a variety
of market environments and were also required to achieve the desired long-term
3% premium in operating profit growth relative to GDP.

12 WorldatWork Journal
FIGURE 2  After-the-Fact Adjustment Schedule for Case Study 1

Illustrative Adjustment Schedule

Plan Payout as a Percentage of Target
GDP Growth

Actual Profit Expected:

v. Budgeted +0.6% to +1.6% to +2.5% to +3.6% to +4.6% to
Target +1.5% +2.4% +3.5% +4.5% +5.5%

170% 200% 200% 200% 200% 200%

160% 200% 200% 200% 200% 167%

150% 200% 200% 200% 200% 133%

140% 200% 200% 200% 167% 100%

130% 200% 200% 200% 133% 67%

120% 200% 200% 167% 100% 33%

110% 200% 200% 133% 67% 0%

100% 200% 167% 100% 33% 0%

90% 200% 133% 67% 0% 0%

80% 167% 100% 33% 0% 0%

70% 133% 67% 0% 0% 0%

60% 100% 33% 0% 0% 0%

50% 67% 0% 0% 0% 0%

40% 33% 0% 0% 0% 0%

30% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

For the long-term incentive plan, the company used the 3%-premium-to-GDP
standard as the basis for setting long-term operating profit goals (e.g., the multi-
year goal was set at 3% above forecasted GDP growth irrespective of positioning
in the cycle). For example, if GDP growth was forecast at 2.5% over the next three
years, the operating profit goal would be set at 5.5%. This approach to long-term
incentives rewarded and encouraged strategic investments and behaviors that
provided the foundation for long-term, sustainable value creation.

CASE STUDY 2: AN INDUSTRY-LEADING PERFORMER — RETAIL

The study company, a retailer, had delivered industry-leading growth in prof-
itability and shareholder returns on a regular basis. Its strategy focused on
constantly improving its customers’ experience and making disciplined, long-
term investments in a seamlessly integrated omnichannel presence (i.e., brick
and mortar and e-commerce) to yield sustained growth and top-quartile TSR.
This strategy was supported by a results-oriented culture that sought constant
improvement without shying away from aggressive stretch goals.

Third Quarter | 2015 13

 The challenge for this company was twofold: to drive sustained improvement
in long-term returns and to ensure the alignment of pay with both absolute
and relative performance. That challenge was complicated by the company’s
successful track record, which created a high bar from which to grow. Coupled
with continuing pressure to set ever more difficult goals, the company could easily
find itself paying executives at the market median for performance materially
above competitive levels or paying little or nothing for average performance. In
either case, the outcome would likely be demotivating to executives and potentially
heighten retention risk.

Criteria 1: Stakeholder expectations

Shareholders were expecting the company to sustain its history of industry-leading
performance and continue to deliver long-term shareholder value creation. To do
this, the company needed to: 1) focus on a disciplined approach to investment in
its omnichannel strategy; 2) continue to deliver an outstanding customer experi-
ence; and 3) seek to retain and motivate the existing leadership team, which the
board and shareholders valued greatly.
From an employee perspective, pay and performance needed to be aligned so
that pay was commensurate with the results produced on both an absolute and
relative basis. To achieve this, goal setting and incentive plan design (e.g., target
pay opportunities, payout leverage) needed to be calibrated to ensure that
industry-leading performance was rewarded with industry-leading actual/realized
pay, while industry-matching performance needed to be rewarded with industry-
competitive actual/realized pay. Further, goals needed to be set to support the
high-performance culture.

Criteria 2: Organizational capabilities and business environment

Thanks to an established and revered brand, outstanding talent, great store loca-
tions and a well-integrated e-commerce platform, the company maintained a
position of strength. The company’s ability to continually raise the bar, however,
was becoming increasingly constrained because the low-hanging fruit for opera-
tional improvements had already been harvested and the pool of desirable store
locations had been shrinking. The company needed to identify new opportunities
for growth and profitability and preserve its high-performance talent and culture.
Although forecasts indicated that the challenging market environment would
make significant year-over-year improvements difficult in the subsequent year,
over the three-year planning horizon, the market environment was likely to
brighten considerably.

Criteria 3: Benchmarking
The company had a history of performing at or above the 75th percentile on
all high-level financial metrics, such as revenue, earnings growth and return on

14 WorldatWork Journal
invested capital (ROIC). Also, it had consistently improved performance over prior
years and beaten analyst expectations, leading to top-quartile TSR growth. Setting
an “on-average, over-time” standard for revenue or earnings growth did not seem
appropriate since the continuous compounding of high-growth would, over time,
require unrealistic increases on a dollar value basis. Instead, the company focused
on ensuring continued discipline in its long-term investments and improvements
to operational efficiency by establishing a targeted ROIC of 5% to 7.5% above the
company’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
The company’s benchmarking exercise had showed that it consistently underper-
formed peers on inventory turns and payroll as a percent of sales, both of which
were attributable to its long-standing focus on delivering a superior customer
experience. Executives realized that new technologies offered solutions that could
reduce costs and inventory levels without sacrificing the customer experience. In
addition, the company could reap additional benefits from the continued rollout
and expansion of its omnichannel platform. Improvements in these areas would
allow the company to deliver returns in the targeted range.

THE SOLUTION
Both the new annual and long-term incentives were designed to maintain the
company’s best-in-class performance while ensuring that pay was aligned with
performance. The annual plan also focused on key strategic changes that would
be needed to support this performance.
The key financial metric in the annual incentive plan was operating income
and goal setting was deliberately divorced from the budgeting process. The target
goal was set at what was considered to be median performance, and yielded a
target (i.e., 100%) payout. However, internally, all budgeting and planning were
focused on providing the progress needed to meet the on-average, over-time ROIC
goal, which was also generally consistent with 75th percentile earnings growth
(determined to be about 15% above median levels). Based on historical analysis
of peers, this level of earnings performance was consistent with a payout at 150%
of median. Thus, the payout curve was structured so it paid target for median
performance and 150% of target for stretch performance. (See Figure 3 on page
16.) Knowing that the macroeconomic environment presented headwinds for the
coming year, planned first-year growth was relatively modest. Subsequent growth
goals were set more aggressively to ensure that the annual goals delivered the
targeted multiyear performance levels.
Asymmetric payout curves were used to help emphasize the top-tier focus.
Thresholds were set at 90% of goal (median performance) and maximums were set
at 125% of goal, well above the stretch target of 115% of goal. Payouts were 67%
of target at threshold and 225% of target at maximum, providing significant upside.
To emphasize the changes needed to support both near-term and longer-term
performance, nonfinancial objectives were used to reinforce improvements in

Third Quarter | 2015 15

inventory turns, employee productivity and the omnichannel rollout. Goals for
the first two metrics were initially targeted at peer levels and later exceeded
them. To ensure that the goals were met without diminishing the company’s very
positive customer experience, a modifier was added to reduce payouts if those
scores dropped.
The long-term incentive plan focused on ROIC. The ROIC goal was also set
at median, but again, internal planning was organized around delivering stretch
75th percentile performance (consistent with the targeted return of 5%–7.5%
above WACC). Although high threshold and maximum levels were used in the
long-term incentives (LTI), payouts were not as leveraged, reflecting that stock
price movements would provide the desired levels of realized pay. The trajectory
of annual operating income and inventory turn goals was established to ensure
that executives would achieve the long-term ROIC goal. To further reinforce
strong relative performance, a relative TSR modifier was also included.

FIGURE 3  Annual Incentive Leverage Curve

Step 1 — C
 ompany establishes a “stretch” budget that is representative of 75th
percentile performance
Step 2 — A
 review of competitive pay data suggests that a 150% of target payout would typically
deliver 75th percentile pay
Step 3 — P
 ayout leverage curve is shifted to deliver a 150% of target payout for achieving the
stretch budget
Step 4 — C
 ompany reaffirms that the sharing rates are appropriate above/below target and
that the 100% payout is representative of what is typically considered to be 50th
percentile performance

Payout Leverage Curve

225% 225%

Payout Leverage
Curve for "Stretch"
(75th P) Budget
% of Target Payout

150%

100%

Typical Payout
67% Leverage Curve for
50th P Budget

$90 $100 $115 $125

16 WorldatWork Journal
CONCLUSION
The complicated exercise of goal setting can be both simplified and made more
effective through the use of the three-part goal-setting framework. The overarching
goals of incentive compensation design — to advance key shareholder priorities
and meet the company’s talent needs — can be supported by an approach that
focuses on the expectations of key stakeholders and the company’s ability to meet
those expectations. It can also be supported by consideration of the benchmarks
that will be used to assess results. Not only can this framework be applied across
a spectrum of company circumstances, including companies in cyclical industries
and companies with track records of sustained high performance, but can also
help companies faced with compensation challenges operate effectively in today’s
increasingly uncertain and complex environment.

AUTHORS

Seymour Burchman (sburchman@semlerbrossy.com)  is managing director at Semler Brossy Consulting

Group. Burchman has been an executive compensation consultant for over 20 years. His work focuses on
reinforcing key strategies and leading to improved shareholder value through the identification of performance
measures and goal-setting processes. He has served companies across a wide range of industries, including
financial services, health care, high technology and publishing.

Mark Emanuel (memanuel@semlerbrossy.com)  is senior consultant at Semler Brossy Consulting Group.

He joined SBCG in July 2007. He has broad experience consulting to senior management and boards of
directors on a variety of compensation and governance related matters in both public and private settings.
Emanuel serves clients across all industries but with a particular focus in financial services and retail apparel.
Emanuel graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a bachelor of science degree in engineering and a minor
in economics.

REFERENCES

Institutional Shareholder Services. 2014. “2014-15 Policy Survey Summary of Results.” Viewed: May 19, 2015.
www.issgovernance.com/file/publications/ISS2014-2015PolicySurveyResultsReport.pdf.

“ISS to buy Incentive Lab.” Oct. 16, 2014. Institutional Shareholder Services. Viewed: May 19, 2015.
www.issgovernance.com/iss-services-acquire-incentive-lab.

Third Quarter | 2015 17