Are there really any new ideas out there when it comes to better pay packages for top executives. From down under comes an interesting idea for chief information officers at banks. At Australia 's Commonwealth Bank, 40 percent of CIO Michael Harte's compensation will be tied to customer satisfaction. 

The benchmarks built into the pay plan include such things as online availability of services and quality of services. The bank has garnered some good reviews so far. Information Week says the move is particularly impressive because the company is extending it beyond the CIO to the bank's entire 'supply chain'-including IT vendors. "That's assuming responsibility and accountability for the customer experiences on which the bank's ultimate success or failure depends." 

The CIO himself is not shy about talking about this. The bank's Internet services suffered an outage in June, something attributed in part to some iffy activity it perhaps could not have controlled. Lots of customers were upset. And Harte and his team paid for it in the form of a lower payouts. "If our customers aren't happy with the reliability of the system, the convenience and ease of use and access, the richness and features and functions, we will be penalized, and our staff will directly feel that," he told ZDNet.  

All managers on the enterprise services team each have packages about 40 percent of which is determined by customer satisfaction. 

For the record, Harte made $2.8 million for his services this year--$1.2 million was in short-term bonuses, $500,000 was in long-term incentive payment. This compared to $2.7 in total pay the year before. So, he's doing fine.  

It remains to be seen whether we'll see more of this sort of exec comp tinkering in the United States. But boards ought to be at least thinking about such ideas for CIOs and others. - Jim