That climbed to 4.5 percent in 1997 and 5.6 percent in 1998, according to research by San Francisco compensation consulting firm iQuantic. Company leaders in particular are getting huge incentives to create stock market successes. Daniel Silver, director of surveys for iQuantic, says the growing use of stock options reflects what s at the heart of the information age economy. The investment now is in intellectual capital, Silver says. You must invest money in smarts in what is in people s heads.
Stock is a way of investing in intellectual capital.
That form of investment is happening here more than on the East Coast. According to a recent study by research firm VentureOne, the typical Internet venture-backed company on the West Coast gives its CEO options worth 7.0 percent of the firm. The typical East Coast firm, by contrast, gives its head honcho 4.9 percent of the firm in options. Other research by VentureOne helps explain the way techies with the right skills can call a lot of the shots. The money helped 472 companies get venture funding for the first time.