The following guest post originally appeared as a 2019 supplement to The Shareholder Service Optimizer. See Publishers Note at the bottom of this post for more details on how it was changed and how it is relevant to both issuers and employee shareholders. (more…)
Kellogg 2022 annual meeting is on April 29, 2022, at 10:00 am Pacific. It is a virtual-only meeting on the Broadridge platform. Of course, I recommend voting in advance, especially since they have made it very difficult to vote at the meeting and maybe even to enter the meeting. To enhance corporate governance and long-term value, vote […]
Leo Strine (Leo E. Strine, Jr.) is one of history’s most prolific legal scholars, especially on issues of corporate accountability. I have seen and heard him in many venues. Much like a rock star, he often comes out, blows our minds, and quickly exits the stage. On Monday (3/14/22), he will be our guest on […]
Reincorporate Apple with a deeper purpose. That’s what we’re asking for in shareholder proposal #5. We suggest some possibilities. Apple could seek to benefit employees and customers, society, and/or the environment. The Board would propose those deeper purposes and shareholders would then vote on them… if our shareholder proposal passes. (click below if you would rather […]
Proposal #4 aims at increasing diversity by adding a worker to the pool of candidates to be considered for the Board. The idea is to increase the voice of “partners.” We’ve been listening and seeing how important partners are to Starbucks. (more…)
WD-40 2020, where employee voice and empowerment is on the ballot. The WD-40 2020 annual meeting is Tuesday, December 8th. To enhance long-term value, vote AGAINST the auditor and FOR all other items, including #4. $WDFC (more…)
Election fraud attempt by Citigroup points to the need for more participation in decision-making by employees to ensure ethical conduct. Citigroup tries to cheat by telling us we need to meet SEC rules today for the 2021 AGM that don’t become effective until 2022. With a market cap of more than $82B, don’t tell me […]
Predatory Value Extraction: How the Looting of the Business Corporation Became the US Norm and How Sustainable Prosperity Can Be Restored (Kindle/Hardcover), by William Lazonick and Jang-Sup Shin, chronicles how agency theory and ‘maximizing shareholder value’ (MSV) led to looting of publicly traded companies. As many of us sit home waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
Shareholders v Stakeholders is in the news again, driven by the Business Roundtable. Someone asked Quora: Regarding corporate social responsibility, do you agree more with the shareholder view or the stakeholder view theory? Below is my response with a few edits, after some additional thought. (more…)
Amazon 2019 annual meeting is May 22nd, so vote online by May 21st. To enhance long-term shareholder value, vote AGAINST Thomas Ryder, pay and auditor. Vote FOR all shareholder proposals EXCEPT #12 Report on Board Ideologies. (more…)
On or before May 22, shareowners of Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) have a chance to vote FOR proposal #4, requesting a report on converting the ownership structure of Twitter to a cooperative or other more democratic form of governance. Twitter has been critical to those involved in the struggle for democracy but could be even more […]
Concerned Shareholders of Reeds: Formed The Concerned Shareholders of Reeds, Inc., led by Edwin R. Lozano, today announced the formation of a committee to rescue Reeds, Inc. The committee delivered an open letter to Reeds Founder/CEO/Chairman and the Reeds Board of Directors expressing significant concerns with the company’s poor financial performance, problematic corporate Governance practices and […]
CEO Pay Ratios: Mandated Reporting Approaches Starting fiscal years beginning in January, companies must disclose CEO pay ratios to the median compensation of their employees. Companies have flexibility with regard to sampling and other methodologies, according to how the SEC has interpreted the Dodd-Frank Act. In preparation, PayScale and Equilar surveyed employee sentiment on CEO pay […]
A supervisor solicits ideas and suggestions from workers, hears them out even when disagreeing with them, and uses suggestions from the group in making decisions. All well and good, but, given the natural human resistance to yield decision-making, how is the group likely to respond to such initiatives? With little change at first, but, once […]
Market Basket demonstrations and boycotts have Robert Reich wondering, are we seeing The Rebirth of Stakeholder Capitalism? In recent weeks, the managers, employees, and customers of a New England chain of supermarkets called “Market Basket” have joined together to oppose the board of director’s decision earlier in the year to oust the chain’s popular chief executive, […]
The BBC reports Activist Ralph Nader wants you to get paid. Apparently, our Take Action: Join Nader’s Penny Brigade didn’t take hold. BBC CAPITAL: This year, you’ve taken steps to get the Penny Brigade idea off the ground. You want 15 to 20 advocates for good company behaviour to provide setting-up costs for a watchdog foundation, right? You […]
I wish I could be in the UK for this seminar. I’d love to hear from anyone attending as to papers delivered, opinions expressed, etc. The role of employees in corporate governance will be the subject of a forthcoming PIRC seminar taking place on 13th June. (more…)
As Black Friday nears, Wal-Mart ($WMT) workers and community supporters are beginning 1,000 nationwide non-violent protests leading up to and on Black Friday, including strikes, rallies, flash mobs, direct action and other efforts to inform customers about the illegal actions that Wal-Mart has been taking against its workers. As part of the protests, Wal-Mart workers walked off […]