Shortly before he became chief executive, he dipped into corporate archives, reading speeches and memos from the founder, Thomas Watson Sr.
Executive compensation dipped during the financial crisis, but it has risen briskly since, and is now higher than it's ever been.
At the event, Imperium chief executive Martin Tobias dipped his finger in a container of biodiesel and took a taste for the crowd.
Although usually nominally independent of the companies whose names they take, corporate foundations in practice are often treated as a sort of slush fund into which the chief executive can dip to help a pet cause, enhance his status in the community or even cement a business relationship with a donation to a cause close to a business partner's heart.
"The trend lines of market capitalization and executive payouts rose and dipped in near-perfect tandem," Ms. Vanderkam writes.
Morgan Stanley returned to profitability in 2010, but the chief executive James Gorman's pay dipped by almost half from 2009 as the firm's stock declined.
Seb James, the ebullient chief executive, said trading had dipped after Black Friday but argued this was part of a new pattern resembling two humps of a camel.
In a separate report on Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its manufacturing index dipped slightly in May from a nearly six-year high in April.
The largest gains in compensation, however, have come in an area where there is no evidence of increased demand or tight supply: the market for chief executives.Bouncing bonusesTop bosses' pay dipped with profits in the past couple of years although it could never have been called low.
Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has dipped its toe into the executive pay pool with a rule issued last week that would require companies to publish a comparison of their chief executives' pay to the median compensation of most other company employees.
