Philip Clarke of Tesco can easily afford to pass on a £372,000 bonus; he still collected about £1.65m last year in salary, benefits plus a windfall from a maturing 2009 scheme. It's also true that many of the group's mistakes over the past year, such as the cack-handed introduction of the Big Price Drop strategy, originated in his office. But not every chief executive after a year of lousy financial performance declines his bonus (hello, Bob Diamond at Barclays). Well done, Mr Clarke. His example wasn't followed his fellow board members, but as four out of six have left or are leaving soon perhaps that was too much to expect.
There is another novelty to mention from Tesco's pay report. This chart appears for the first time. It illustrates how much each board member has collected over the past five years via the various components of his of her package. It is clear, tells the long-term story and deserves to be universally adopted by large companies.
