Who is the greediest and most ruthless executive in the FTSE? To find the answer, you need only look at one business: Cable & Wireless, the publicly listed company that is doing for income inequality what the stretched Hummer is doing for global warming. For the answer is either John Pluthero, who runs C&W’s businesses, or Richard Lapthorne, the group’s chairman.

If there were Avarice Awards for 2007, Mr Pluthero would make an impressive claim to the PLC Prize. Having already made his first fortune from the flotation of Freeserve, the free internet business, and then another from running Energis, the telecoms company, Mr Pluthero got himself a pay package at C&W with a bonus capped at £20 million. Then, with the help of Mr Lapthorne, he negotiated to have the £20 million limit lifted. And now, having elbowed aside Harris Jones, the chief executive of the so-called “international division”, Mr Pluthero stands to gain about half of the multimillion-pound bonus that was due to accrue to his former colleague.

Mr Lapthorne, who has structured an incentive scheme for himself as chairman that puts him on a similar footing to his executive team, has shown a brutal appetite for performance: Mr Jones is said to be the eighth senior manager that Mr Lapthorne has brushed aside.

In terms of shareholder return, Mr Lapthorne and Mr Pluthero more than deserve their pay. C&W has been brought back from the brink and shareholders have seen the value of their investment more than quadruple. The two men make the entirely reasonable case that they are simply applying private equity’s system of rewards to the publicly quoted sector. And there have certainly been executives in the buyout business who have earned more, doing less and in a shorter time than C&W’s management.

However, C&W’s behaviour is not a credit to itself nor to private equity.

Mr Jones is being ushered out of the company with a £4.3 million payout. He is leaving because Mr Lapthorne and Mr Pluthero are dissatisfied with the international division’s rate of growth. His golden farewell, therefore, looks suspiciously like underperformance pay.

C&W is a company being built not to last, but for sale or break-up. These incentive schemes do not encourage long-term investment in the business, but reward a short-term process to polish it up for auction. And, unlike private equity partners, Mr Lapthorne and Mr Pluthero risk little personally for a great deal of potential corporate reward.

Mr Lapthorne’s decision to reward himself as chairman as if he were an executive is troubling. He has no incentive to safeguard the interests of all of C&W’s employees. If there are problems in the running of the business, there is little reason why he would blow the whistle on the current management – or pay heed to a whistleblower – if he himself is in sight of a sale or his own bonus payout.

Hefty executive pay is a good thing. Big payouts to top executives, when linked to performance, encourage competitiveness, wealth creation, economic growth and, ultimately, further employment and prosperity. C&W’s shareholders are, quite rightly, applauding Mr Lapthorne and Mr Pluthero. They may be taking tens of millions in pay, but they are returning billions in value to investors.

However, there is a broader issue that goes beyond C&W. The concentration of reward to the top executives - without personal risk and without long-term social benefit either to the business, its customers or its employees – threatens the credibility of capitalism. C&W is beginning to look like a PLC that is giving private equity a bad name.

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