509 Posts Found

While the focus on stakeholders may be a bottom-up movement, the control in corporations is still exercised top-down: The money’s at the top, the pain at the bottom. CEOs today are making well over 400 times the average worker’s salary. If there was any group in the country looking out for the mid-range executive–which there isn’t–they’d have some wicked things to say about the gap … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Organizational Behavior

Next time you hear a chief executive go on about teamwork, about how “we” did it by all pulling together, ask who among the “we” is getting what kind of bonus. When you hear that chief boosting about taking the long view, ask how those bonuses are calculated. If cooperation and foresight are so important, why have these few been cashing in on generous stock … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership

There is a ready bounty of CEO material currently available, but there is an unholy alliance between risk-averse boards and executive recruiters promoting marquee candidates that gives the appearance of a shortage. That very small group can’t possibly perform at the messianic level expected of them, and the list gets shorter and shorter over time as the unrealistic expectations become apparent.

Content: Quotation | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Miscellaneous

Corporate governance experts aren’t saying who’s got the best board anymore. Instead, they’re demanding a slew of new best practices to bring directors’ behavior into the bright light of day.

Content: Article | Author: C.J. Prince | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Corporate Governance

Often, performance-based plans are a measure not of an executive’s ability to reach a specific goal, but his ability to negotiate favorable, easily attainable goals with his superiors or the board.

Content: Quotation | Source: CFO Publishing | Subjects: Compensation, Corporate Governance

“The corporate board simply sucks as a tool for fiduciary oversight,” says Ward, Boardroom INSIDER publisher and Corporate Boards editor. He finds that boards fall victim to ten common traps – such as using the wrong information, conflicting agendas, and ineffective responses to bad news – and offers practical advice for avoiding them.

Content: Book | Author: Ralph D. Ward | Subject: Corporate Governance

What do you need to consider in forming your board in a way that gets the benefits you need from it without the nightmares? Keep three points in mind: 1) Be intentional in shaping the role of the board, 2) select your first directors for their competencies, and 3) consider the processes and norms you need to establish about how your board operates.

Content: Article | Authors: Lana J. Furr, Richard M. Furr, Ph.D. | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Corporate Governance

Special retirement plans for top executives are becoming a target for other stakeholders.

Content: Article | Author: Ronald Fink | Source: CFO Publishing | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Finance

History will look back on the last decade of executive compensation in the United States as an atrocity. The levels of pay exceeded any historical precedent, bore little comparison with compensation in other countries, and – most importantly – failed to have any correlation with the creation of value for shareholders.

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Compensation, Corporate Governance

This site, put together by the Insights and Ideas Group at Burson-Marsteller, offers quite a bit of useful information for and about the chief executive officer position. For example, you can find listings of new CEO placements and departures, take a “test your CEO skills” quiz, find CEO stats (basic, demographic, geographic), read about CEO failure and success, read about CEO reputation, and much … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Burson-Marsteller | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management

Most bungled successions can be traced to five failings.
First, many incumbents are reluctant to give up power, either hanging on too long or trying to foist like-minded successors onto their boards.
Second, when appointing new leaders, boards often choose a safe replacement, rather than someone who will question the directors’ roles.
Third, swayed by force of personality, boards frequently fail to define or adhere … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Succession Planning

In a turbulent economy, firms need to be especially diligent about directors.

Editor’s Note: offers profiles of “turkey” board member types that is both amusing and useful.

Content: Article | Author: Robert K. Mueller | Source: Context Magazine | Subject: Corporate Governance

Concerning the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, it is more than ironic that perhaps the largest gulf of all is not between Americans and people in other countries, but rather between CEOs in America and their own workers. How are we going to narrow the former until we take steps to narrow the latter?

Content: Quotation | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Pawns or Potentates provides a masterly overview of the current limited roles of outside directors, along with specific recommendations for increasing their power for the greater benefit of the companies and stakeholders they serve.

Content: Book | Authors: Elizabeth MacIver, Jay W. Lorsch | Subject: Corporate Governance

This paper provides an overview of the main theoretical elements and empirical underpinnings of a “managerial power” approach to executive compensation. The managerial power approach recognizes that boards of publicly traded companies with dispersed ownership do not bargain at arms’ length with managers, and that managers are able to influence their own pay arrangements. It thus views executive compensation not only as an instrument for … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Jesse Fried, Lucian A. Bebchuk | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Finance

The issue of raising the bar on the board is becoming increasingly critical to long-term success in an increasingly complex marketplace and environment of increased investor and governmental scrutiny.

Content: Article | Authors: Lana J. Furr, Richard M. Furr, Ph.D. | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Corporate Governance

Bill Dunk reads annual reports, some 600 to 700 each year. He pores over each “Letter From the CEO” and looks for clues about the future prospects and direction of the corporate world. Then he issues his own annual report about the year’s annual reports.

Content: Online Resource | Source: William Dunk Partners Inc. | Subject: Corporate Governance

Efforts to restore public trust in the governance of corporations are hampered by abuse of power at board level and the neglected rights of shareholders.

Editor’s Note: an excellent, though very critical look at corporate governance practices. A nice complement to this article (and part of the larger EBF debate on corporate governance) is “Professionalism or incarceration – what future for boards?” by … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Robert Monks | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Corporate Governance

article by Hartzell and Starks finds that as institutional ownership goes up, the firm is more likely to use pay for performance plans. Additionally, the level of CEO pay tends to go down. These findings suggest that institutional investors make better monitors than ordinary investors do. Possibly more convincing however, (since it solves the endogenity problem which is that is the institutional … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Jay C. Hartzell, Laura T. Starks | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Finance

Most companies are paying scant attention to reports about the quality of their governance practices. But that may soon change as investor and regulator interest rises.

Content: Article | Author: Eric Krell | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subject: Corporate Governance