Ground Floor: World events may produce new headlines with every passing minute, stock markets continue to gyrate with each different story from the Gulf but one area of business carries on regardless - yes, the thorny issue of executive pay has reared its head once again.

In the past week or so there have been a number of different companies defending the pay levels (and payouts) to current and former high-flyers - such as Mr Tim Byrne for instance.

Mr Byrne was ousted from the top spot at tour operator MyTravel last year following a shareholder revolt (the company's market value has dropped from £1.2 billion sterling (€1.77 billion) to £62.6 million). For him, it was not all bad news because his settlement was a rather nice £1.2 million.

The current chairman, Mr Eric Sanderson, told investors that payoffs made to Mr Byrne and two other directors - Mr David Jardine, who looked after finance, and Mr Richard Carrick, in charge of development - were "a better outcome for the company than was likely to be achieved through a process of protracted litigation".

So, basically the situation in business now is that you might turn in a woeful performance and be asked to leave, but all you do is call in the legal eagles and, hopefully, the company will capitulate because it knows that the one segment of professionals that can earn more than chief executives is lawyers.

At least Messrs Byrne, Jardine and Carrick can afford to holiday this year - shareholders, however, have seen the company's share price plummet from around 283p to a mere 13p.

Sometimes the price of failure seems to look pretty good for those involved - as long as they're not shareholders.

Sir Phil Watts, the chairman of Shell, wouldn't consider that he failed in his job last year although profits at the company fell by 23 per cent.

In fact, despite the fall, Sir Phil managed to earn an extra £650,000, bringing his total salary up to £1.8 million. For some reason his performance-related bonus almost doubled.

I had to look at the figures twice because I still have to work out how you can manage to increase your bonus while reporting lower profits and a lower share price. What gems did he impart to Shell last year that meant his colleagues rated him so highly?

The company says it's because Shell outperformed its peers in the period.

This is the argument used by many fund managers to justify their existence when they report on the dwindling value of your fund. Bad as it may be, they say, you would have been a lot worse with the bloke down the street. So they believe they deserve more money. Never mind that you - just like the shareholders - are losing it in spades.

There's a bit of a debate going on too about the pay packets in rival oil firm BP, whose chief executive's remuneration fell 32 per cent to a mere £3.9 million.

BP's profits fell by 25 per cent. (See, Shell told the truth, a mere 23 per cent fall was way out-performing its peers!)

Anyway, the BP chief executive, Lord Browne, has always been paid more than his cohorts elsewhere, which is why, no doubt, they continually ask for more themselves.

Last year, he only picked up £1.7 million as his performance bonus. His basic salary is £1.3 million but the total haul for the peer hits £3.9 million when you add the bonus and other benefits. Still, he did take a cut - it was £5.7 million in 2001.

Meanwhile, at Marconi, the telecommunications company that came to the brink of bankruptcy and left its shareholders reeling, the newest chief executive, Mr Mike Parton, will be awarded up to 17.5 million shares if he manages to make a profit within the next five years.

Marconi has been working on an equity restructuring plan for the past few months and the company filed documents in the high court last week that set out details of the plan, which will see 99.5 per cent of Marconi being handed over to creditors, leaving existing shareholders owning a mere 0.5 per cent.

The incentive scheme for the management board means that, if they reach debt-repayment targets and push the company's market capitalisation over £1 billion in three years and £1.5 billion over five, they will get free share options which could be worth up to £1 a share.

A couple of years ago Marconi shares were dealing at £12.50. Now they're dealing at 2p. (Yes, 2p - the return, so to speak, of the penny share!)

As well as Mr Parton, the other members of the management team are chairman Mr John Devaney, who is expected to receive about three million shares, and chief operating officer Mr Michael Donovan, who'll get around 10 million.

However, there is some good news for shareholders because management must give up their previous "retention" payments and all further cash bonuses and pay rises for a year.

And if Mr Parton and Marconi decide they can't dance the dance after all because of "underperformance", there won't be any severance package - although I have a sneaking feeling if that actually does happen, Mr Parton can always ring up a legal pal who'll rip the contract to shreds, forcing the company to pay something anyway because it would be "a better outcome for the company than was likely to be achieved through a process of protracted litigation".

Anyway, Mr Parton and the team are ploughing ahead although they're not overly optimistic about the next 12 months. Group sales were down by about 45 per cent in the third quarter of last year and they've already warned that they'll continue to decline in the next few months. But - and this is the bit that I presume makes them leap out of bed in the morning - they've slashed the operating losses from nearly £300 million to £41 million, which is a pretty significant achievement.

Mind you, they've also slashed the workforce. A few years ago Marconi employed 56,000 people. Now it's a mere 14,000.

Still, it's nice to know that the boys are thoroughly incentivised. I wonder how the workers are doing?