If you are to attract, motivate and keep your best executives, they need to know that their stellar performance will be richly rewarded. There are no doubts among the executives regarding what the performance criteria are and how they will be rewarded for attaining them. The key element is to put their money at risk. It needs to be subject either to vesting or forfeiture that's determined by what the executive leaves to do. You want to make it difficult for the executive to depart.
Some sectors have much higher turnover rates than others.
Also, beyond the standard growth and profitability measures, more specific performance criteria will vary by industry. For example, in financial services the ability to strengthen client relationships is important, while in the technology sector the ability to innovate is paramount. These have to be defined first. Once that's done, the incentive plan will flow very easily from those objectives. These approaches can be combined.