Concept · Governance & Ownership
Say on Pay
Origin: Shareholder rights
Biological Parallel
Chimpanzee coalitions vote on alpha pay through grooming allocation: when alphas extract excessive benefits (monopolizing food, blocking mating access) without providing value (poor predator defense, weak coalition maintenance), subordinates withdraw grooming investment and form counter-coalitions. This 'say on pay' mechanism topples 30-40% of alpha males who overreach. The parallel is exact: distributed stakeholders (shareholders/subordinates) use collective action (proxy votes/coalition formation) to discipline leaders who claim disproportionate rewards without delivering commensurate value. Both systems balance concentrated authority with distributed accountability.