Your idea regarding stock options is most novel and would be effective.
It isn't a novel idea to me. It was my first thought when the new crop of pin-stripe cowboys invaded the executive positions at Pacific Bell in the 1984 time frame. The company had just transitioned from being an appendage of AT&T to a divested, public company. The new guys got stock options and knew just how to make them more "valuable". Simply eviscerate the company to cut expenses. It's a simple, short term strategy to make the bottom line look great. As soon as the bottom line looks great, the cowboys cash the options and run. The consequences of the evisceration took a couple years to become apparent. The cowboys were well aware of the negative impacts in the long term. They didn't care. The object was to line their pockets with cheap tricks and get out of dodge before the damage was obvious.