PERSPECTIVE: Top-earning bosses must respect value of employee morale.

It's that time of year when industry observers start picking through agencies' annual figures to unearth the revenue truth behind the new-business hype and expose those agency businesses that are run about as well as Johnny Vegas doing the London Marathon.

Most fun of all is the ranking of the industry's highest-paid directors.

Look out for Campaign's annual 'Agency Performance League' at the beginning of October for the full lowdown, but here's a sneak (if unsurprising) preview: Sir Martin Sorrell's 2002 packaged nudged the pounds 2 million mark, Aegis' Doug Flynn (admittedly rather less well-known than Sorrell for services to the communications business) clocks in at pounds 1.15 million, and Cordiant's former chief, Michael Bungey (hopefully for the last time in the history of our tables), pocketed just over pounds 650,000.

None of these executives are likely to have much need for the sort of staff soothers outlined in this week's feature (p18). When your basic salary tops the half-million mark, a free breakfast is a bit irrelevant But as our very unscientific analysis of the perks offered by London's agencies suggests, these eye-watering salaries are not everything.

Sure, an extra 'happy hour' in the agency bar or troop-rallying memo from the warm-hearted big boss in the New York office is hardly much compensation for a pay freeze. But agencies are clearly more aware than ever that these little extras can help keep staff motivated when ...