At a loss

The CEO of a multinational mobile company had an unusual take on the problem of doing business in India at an industry panel discussion. The issue that was exercising him, he said, was how to pay independent directors on his board. Under earlier laws, directors were paid a sitting fee and their expenses for attending meetings were reimbursed. The new Companies Act added a third: profit-related commission. Since the telecom company concerned had made a loss, there was no profit-related commission to pay. "We were brainstorming to figure out ways to compensate these directors for the loss of remuneration," said the CEO, adding with heavy sarcasm: "I thought the new company law was supposed to make it easy to do business."