After a firestorm of protest over the $2B+ bonus package for their 31,000 employees, Goldman had a new message today. My question is - If they had the idea about a more responsible compensation plan in May, why wait until the damage is done in December to revise the actual plan? Another example of the importance of Issue Management. By carrying the decision through to the end-game back in May or June they could have taken credit for good governance then and avoided the negative stories of the past week that prompted today’s action.

“The measures that we are announcing today reflect the compensation principles that we articulated at our shareholders’ meeting in May. We believe our compensation policies are the strongest in our industry and ensure that compensation accurately reflects the firm’s performance and incentivize behavior that is in the public’s and our shareholders’ best interests,” Mr. Blankfein said.

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