2022 Corporate Accountability forums begin 2/22 at 11 am Pacific (2 pm Eastern) with Brandon Rees as our first guest speaker using our own Zoom account and registration process. Each session will last 60 or more, so everyone should get a chance to join the discussion. Flexibility is key, so meeting days and times will […]
Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Timeliness In the spirit of Kuhn, this book eviscerates modern portfolio theory, arguing for a more systemic approach centered around human values and intentionality. I had similar nascent thoughts in 1967 when I concluded economics, based on “rational” actor assumptions of homo economicus, was not grounded in science. Lukomnik and Hawley aptly […]
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, […]
ISG (Investor Stewardship Group), an investor-led initiative comprised of more than 60 of the largest U.S.-based institutional investors and global asset managers representing in excess of US$31 trillion AUM, joins with the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance to hold what promises to be an informative and exciting conference. Register now. (more…)
Investor Stewardship Group Launches Stewardship Framework for 2018 The Investor Stewardship Group (link), a collective of some of the largest U.S.-based institutional investors and global asset managers, along with several of their international counterparts, announced the launch of the Framework for U.S. Stewardship and Governance, a historic, sustained initiative to establish a framework of basic standards […]
Sign up today for the 10th anniversary, Directors Forum: Directors, Management & Shareholders in Dialogue, which brings together a unique blend of institutional investors, directors, management, regulators, consultants and contractors in an intimate setting designed for genuine access and interaction between speakers and attendees. January 25 – 27, 2015 in beautiful San Diego. I attend several […]
Robert Monks has just begun a series of articles at CSRwire on his most recent book, Citizens DisUnited: Passive Investors, Drone CEOs, and the Corporate Capture of the American Dream (my review). Part one of the CSRwire is A Simple Solution to Runaway Corporate Power. See also, Robert A.G. Monks, Crusading Against Corporate Excess, NYTimes, July 6th. His main message […]
Marty Lipton and David Karpview view as “significant” the announced effort by BlackRock Inc., which invests over $3.345 trillion of client assets, to take a direct interest in the governance of the companies in which they invest. According to this 1/21/2012 post, Disintermediating the Proxy Advisory Firms, at the Harvard corpgov (more…)
The Harvard Institutional Investors Roundtable will convene tomorrow, bringing prominent members of the institutional investor world together focus on lessons from the first year of say-on-pay votes. During the second (more…)
Institutional investors came back to the securities markets in droves in 2009 after fleeing during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, according to The 2010 Institutional Investment Report released by The Conference Board earlier last month. The report showed that institutional investors owned 73 percent of the top 1,000 companies in 2009 compared to 69 percent […]
Interesting article in The Economist (Corporate Constitutions, 10/28/2010) on the recent revolution in corporate governance. in 2009 less than 12% of incoming CEOs were also made chairmen, compared with 48% in 2002. CEOs are held accountable for their performance—and turfed out if they fail to perform, with the average length of tenure dropping from 8.1 […]
South Africa’s Business Reports (Draft code requires institutions to disclose voting, 9/2/10) says “a draft copy of the institutional shareholder code for responsible investing was released for discussion yesterday. The code, which requires public disclosure of voting records and policies, is set to have a significant impact on the way in which the country’s R1.5 […]
In his article The Parallel Universes of Institutional Investing and Institutional Voting, Charles M. Nathan appears to pine for the days when institutional investors took the “Wall Street Walk” if they disagreed with management on governance issues. T. Boone Pickens Jr’s response to that perspective: That’s like the gardener telling the estate owner, “If you […]
UK institutional shareholders will be forced to declare how they vote at company annual general meetings (AGMs) if the current governing Labor Party wins the general election on May 6. In addition, it wants a higher threshold of investor support for takeovers: two-thirds of shareholders. (UK shareholders to be forced to reveal votes if Labour […]
Cristina Cella investigates whether institutional investors influence firms’ investment policies. By virtue of their significant ownership stakes and investment horizons, long-term institutional investors should closely monitor management and thus reduce agency costs. Using a panel dataset of 2,511 U.S. manufacturing firms that went public in 1980-2003 and using several econometric specifications, she find that firms with […]
Check out the CorpGov Blog, a work in progress. After years of demands that we have indexed articles, an RSS feed and other advantages of blogs, we’re finally beginning to adapt. With our 15th anniversary coming up in 2010, maybe it is time to join the 21st century. Your feedback is appreciated, either via e-mail […]
Institutional Investors and Corporate Governance: Best Practices for Increasing Corporate Value by Carolyn Kay Brancato. Viewing your stock as you would the products you sell, and trying to woo shareholders as you would potential customers offers the ultimate offers “win-win” situation, but only if the shareholders so selected continue as passive consumers. (more…)
Investor Capitalism: How Money Managers Are Changing the Face of Corporate America. Managerial capitalism ascended during the century’s middle decades. “The decisions they made often affected the lives of thousands of people, yet they were seemingly accountable to no one.” The large holdings of institutional investors and the growth of indexing as a major investment strategy have prevented the […]