Bob Frisch is the managing partner of Strategic Offsites Group. He has more than 29 years of experience working with executive teams and boards worldwide on their most critical strategic issues. He has published three articles on teams and decision making in the Harvard Business Review: “Who Really Makes the Big Decisions in Your Company” (12/11), “When Teams Can’t […]
Tag Archives | SVNACD
SVNACD Event: M&A Pitfalls for Directors
M&A activity is on the rise, and recent decisions by the Delaware Chancery Court make the stakes for directors higher than ever. The businesspersons and lawyers on this panel offered plenty of insights about the life-cycle of a current M&A transaction from initial market check to consummation and then follow-up litigation, pointing out the all-too-frequent […]
Video Friday: Shareholder Activism Goes Mainstream
National Association of Corporate Directors, Silicon Valley Chapter, Inc. Interview with: Ken Denman, Former President & CEO, Openwave Systems, Inc. Hosted by: Abe Friedman, Managing Partner, CamberView Partners (more…)
Controlled Companies Carry Negatives
A new study finds that controlled companies – particularly those with multiple classes of shares – generally underperform over the long term. As compared to companies with dispersed ownership, controlled companies experience more stock price volatility, increased material weakness in accounting controls, more related party transactions, and offer fewer rights to unaffiliated shareholders. The study […]
Corporate Secretary: Consider an Ombuds Program
Is an ombudsman right for your company?, asks Aarti Maharaj in the current issue of Corporate Secretary. (more…)
SVNACD: Red Flags of an Ethical Collapse & Alternative Proxy Voting Advice to Stem Dual Class IPOs
It was the last SVNACD event of the season and I’m already looking forward to the fall for new programs. Another great program, led by the following: (more…)
Video Friday: Successful Board DNA + Reading International Valuation
Dan Siciliano, Associate Dean, Stanford Law School, interviews C. S. Park, Lead Director, Seagate Board. Presented by the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors. (more…)
Video Friday: SVNACD Series on What Makes an Effective Board
See details of upcoming meeting on the DNA of a successful board below. Richard Levy, chairman of Varian Medical Systems, talks with Jim Balassone, executive-in-residence at the (more…)
Silicon Valley Exceptionalism
Hopefully, it can mostly be attributable to early stage growth but Fenwick & West’s Corporate Governance Practices and Trends: A Comparison of Large Public Companies and Silicon Valley Companies found significant differences between the (more…)
SVNAD – Executive Comp: Every CEO Above Average!
The stock market still has not recovered from the meltdown of 2008, and many companies have had severe reductions in their workforces, but CEO compensation of major U.S. companies rose 36.5% last year. Why is there this disconnect between stock market performance, mass layoffs and CEO compensation? What should boards of directors be doing to […]
Friday Video Supplement: Every CEO Above Average
SVNACD Program 1/19/2012; 7:30-8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast; 8:00-9:30 a.m. Palo Alto, CA The stock market still has not recovered from the meltdown of 2008, and many companies have had severe reductions in their workforces, but CEO (more…)
Video Friday: China: Handle With Care — What Boards Need to Know
China presents enormous opportunities for Silicon Valley companies, but it also offers a very different regulatory, cultural, financial and operational paradigm for boards and executives. What should you know when contemplating investments, operations or acquisitions in China? How should you balance the often conflicting requirements of U.S. and Chinese regulators? What do best practices look […]
The Governance Ombuds: SVNACD & Stanford's Rock Center
Why are corporate employees unwilling to report serious misconduct? Why are they also frequently unwilling to share good ideas for improving products, services and business processes? Fear of retaliation is most often cited for the failure to report misconduct; a sense of futility for the failure to suggest improvements. All too often, employees have a […]
When the CEO Really Must Go
It is often said that “the most important function of a board is to hire and fire the CEO.” Yet the experience of many is that boards do a pretty good job on the hiring front and a not-so-good job on the “exit.” An exciting SVNACD session in Palo Alto focused on the pitfalls of […]
When the CEO Really Must Go
It is often said that “the most important function of a board is to hire and fire the CEO.” Yet the experience of many is that boards do a pretty good job on the hiring front and a not-so-good job on the “exit.” The Silicon Valley Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors will hold a […]
Enhancing Shareholder Value: What's Hot in M&A and IP
It had been months since I’d attended an SVNACD breakfast meetings. Top talent was on hand, both among the panelists and in the audience. The facility at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati was great. Sorry about photo quality… first time working with a new camera that I may not keep. As usual, my notes are […]
SVNACD: New Proxy Rules on Executive Compensation
What are the new SEC disclosure rules for executive compensation, especially the “risk” to the corporation of their compensation plans? How are companies dealing with these new rules — what do the early returns from this proxy season indicate? Are these new SEC requirements more of an annual risk assessment of compensation than disclosure rules […]
How Technology Impacts the Boardroom
As an exercise to contemplate before the session, SVNACD asked prospective attendees to “consider the following question: what would a skeptical activist shareholder think if they knew exactly how many emails you sent and how many minutes you spent reading on your blackberry during your last board committee meeting?” Lionel M. (Lon) Allan (right), Board Chair […]