By Franz Waldenberger. Excerpt:
5.2 Governance reform as growth strategy
The high number of Japanese companies listed on domestic stock exchanges, the high degree of ownership dispersion and the moderate pay levels of top executives suggest Japan’s system of corporate governance to function well.
Category: Governance
“Initiatives For Strengthening Corporate Governance Of The Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group”
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group has published its “Initiatives for Strengthening Corporate Governance of the Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group” , which is more advanced than other banking groups in various respects. It includes a requirement of one-third independent external directors, a monitoring role for those directors and a description of the board’s role, and provisions about director qualifications,, director training, and the formation of committees for nomination and compensation and also audit functions.
The New York Times: “Many on Wall Street Say It Remains Untamed”
In the study, to be released Tuesday, about a third of the people who said they made more than $500,000 annually contend that they “have witnessed or have firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace.”
Just as bad: “Nearly one in five respondents feel financial service professionals must sometimes engage in unethical or illegal activity to be successful in the current financial environment.”
One in 10 said they had directly felt pressure “to compromise ethical standards or violate the law.”
BBC: “The Problem With Super Stars”
Big personalities draw attention, ratings, and revenue. It doesn't matter whether it’s the world of entertainment, sport, fashion, or any other kind of business, charismatic personalities can be a real boon. But what happens if something goes wrong?
What happens if the person who has been so valuable to the company crosses an ethical line, behaves in a way that brings disrepute to the organisation, or acts in an inappropriate way? And what role does a company board play in such a situation?
Boardroom Resources, LLC: “The Art of Serving as a Board Committee Chair”
Jim Loree (Chairman of the Audit Committee of Harsco Corporation and President & COO of Stanley Black & Decker Inc.) joins TK Kerstetter, host of “Inside America’s Boardrooms,” to discuss… The Art of Serving as a Board Committee Chair.
Toshiba’ s Case is Similar to IHI’s in 2007
In 2007 Ishikawa Harima Industries (IHI) experienced large profit overstatements (and subsequent downward revisions) caused by overly-optimistic estimates used in percentage-of-completion accounting for large projects. At the bottom of the link below, you can see IHI’s explanation of the incident, and the actions it took for years afterwards in order to improve its internal controls and accounting:
http://www.ihi.co.jp/csr/english/2011/management/governance.html
PwC’s 2014 Annual Corporate Directors Survey – The Gender Edition
The global discussion about gender diversity on public company boards continues. Despite practices in several countries like the adoption of quotas, and significant efforts undertaken by a number of organizations in the US to increase gender diversity of directors, the number of women serving as directors has not changed significantly over the last six years. (18% of all S&P 500 directors are now female compared to 16% in 20081.
The Economist: “The Anti-Bribery Business”
Even for a company with Wal-mart’s heft, $800 million is a sizable sum. That is what the giant retailer will have spent by the end of this fiscal year on its internal probe into alleged bribing of Mexican officials, into whether subsidiaries elsewhere may have been greasing palms and on related compliance improvements.
Bloomberg: “Loeb Sees More Opportunities in Japan as Fanuc Stake Makes Gains”
Billionaire Dan Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund holds a stake in Yamanashi-based Fanuc Corp., said he has met with Japanese officials and expects that he’ll find more ways to spend money in the nation.
“Japan’s Reforms Push Companies to Unlock Cash”
by Jean-Christophe de Swaan – Decades from now, if Abenomics turns out to be successful, economic historians will probably pinpoint Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s corporate sector initiatives of 2014-15 as the era’s seminal reforms.