When former Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs died in 2011, there was a risk the company wouldn't be able to find new executives with the ability to perform at his level.
"Steve Jobs was a one of a kind leader," Dan Ernst, an analyst at Hudson Square Research in New York, told Bloomberg Business. "The risk was always high that people wouldn't be able to fill those shoes. You want a great team, and they've done that."
According to the Bloomberg Pay Index, the first daily ranking of U.S. executive compensation, Apple's top five executives are in fact among the highest-performing in the country on a pay-for-performance measuring system. The Bloomberg Pay Index ranking is calculated by determining an executive's pay as a percentage of a company's economic profit, which is defined as post-tax net operating profit minus its cost of capital, according to the report. A smaller percentage indicates a better return on executive's compensation.
The five Apple executives — CEO Tim Cook, Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts, Senior Vice President of Internet and Software Services Eduardo Cue, Senior Vice President of Operations Jeffrey Williams and former CFO Peter Oppenheimer — were paid a combined $281 million last year, equaling about 1 percent of the company's economic profit.
Out of the 100 highest-paid executives, these five Apple executives are more attractive to investors than 94 of the 100 highest-paid executives, the ranking found. Ninety-one executives in the index receive a greater percentage of their company's economic profit independently than the five individuals from Apple combined, and 36 executives were stationed at companies that produced a negative economic profit, according to the report.