Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The extraordinary performance by Goldman Sachs' CEO Lloyd Blankfein has been rewarded with a huge $67.9 million bonus for 2007.

In a regulatory filing, it revealed that along with $26.8 million in cash, he received $41.1 million in restricted stock units as well.

We'll hear a bunch of blather on whether the the size of the bonus is justified, but if you're following the investment banking industry, the performance of Goldman Sachs (GS) was tremendous when compared with the other large companies in the industry.

When you consider he led Goldman to an earnings increase of $3.22 billion for the quarter, which beat expectations for the eighth quarter in a row, the bonus doesn't look quite so out of proportion.

Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com attempted to make the amount of bonus questionable by saying it's doubtful that Blankfein could have performed as well at another large financial institution; meaning the Sachs brand is what brought it such great results. Coleman also questions what role Blankfein played in the great results.

These are bogus insinuations. The fact is that the buck stops at the CEO of any company, whether the performance is great or poor. You can't have it one way, only focusing on poor performance. As far as the strength of the brand goes, that may get  you new business, but it doesn't do anything to help manage risk. That is done by people and an understanding of the market, and maintaining discipline while everybody around you is making dumb decisions.

The bottom line for Blankfein, is he and his people were able to manage risk in a superb manner in an extremely difficult market. He deserves every bit of the bonus he received. Nobody else has even come close to Goldman Sachs performance in the industry.

Look at major rivals like Bear Stearns (BSC), Merrill Lynch (MER), Citigroup Inc. (C),and Morgan Stanley (MS) to get an idea on the performance of Goldman Sachs and Blankfein during the quarter. Goldman's stock price has risen by about 5 percent this year, while their competitors have dropped by 20 percent or more.

Managing risk, discipline, and resisting the herd mentality is what brought Blankfein and Goldman Sachs success this year. Any other company leader could have done the same but they didn't; Blankfein was rewarded, they weren't.