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For some time it has seemed to me that our thinking about corporate governance has become blindered by the existingframework and playerswe have created, which have becomeself-sustaining and assumed to be immutablenomatter howimperfectthey are.This is the first of a series of ideas and suggestions that I hope will provoke productive discussion unhindered by such assumptions.
(Note:thevideos in the link below are worth watching, on the topic of managing and governing entrepreneurial firms, and related public policy.)
19 April 2011 World Economic Forum (press release)
Too big to fail. Massive externalization of risks. Environmental damage. Institutionalized moral hazard…..
Corporations havebecome so powerful over the years. Surely, they are one of the dominant institutions in today's world.
In an era when we see so much damages caused by corporations, maybe it is good idea to look at the origin, history and evolution of corporations and to rethink about what corporations really exist for.
In the U.K., it is sometimes said that the company secretary is the conscience of the company. From this it is clear that this is a very established role in the U.K., with greater impact than the U.S. and Japan. Some say that this role should be clearly adopted by statutory auditors in Japan.
From thisreport/survey by theComany Secretarial Services Quality House, one can get a better idea of what company secretaries in the U.K. actually do:
Mary-Hunter McDonnell and Brayden King of the Northwestern University School of Law, and theNorthwestern University School of Management, have produceda very revealing (if predictible) research paper with the above title.
(Conclusion of Working Paper – last page)
Sorry, but I can't resist asking: Feel Sorry for Tokyo Electric Power Co? (A cross-post from http://bit.ly/feNIgN) (Note; tongue firmly in cheek: see my straight post earlier: Institutionalized moral hazard: Fun with Nuclear Power in Japan, or, prepare for a glowing twilight, with scattered fallout in the morning – TT's Lost in Tokyo http://bit.ly/hvvWHU)
The followingentry appeared as part of GovernanceMetrics International’s GMI Blog. GMI is the leading independent provider of global corporate governance and ESG ratings and research. Corporate stakeholders – including leading investors, insurers, auditors, regulators and others – use GovernanceMetrics services to identify and monitor risks related to non-financial measures covering key environmental, social, governance and accounting risk factors.
With this new law, multinationals have even more things to worry about with respect to avoiding actions that could be interpreted as corruption.
China has joined a growing number of countries that are implementing new criminal laws to prohibit payment of bribes to foreign officials. In doing so, China is seeking to encourage good behavior among the growing number of Chinese companies doing business overseas.
BDTI will be holding a seminar(panel discussion) onthe most importanttopics regarding amendment of the CompanyLaw,whichhas been underdiscussion by the MOJLegal System Advisory Committee for more than a year. Two members of thekey Committee will be on the panel, as well as one of Japan's most respected practicing lawyers, and a well-known fund manager andCEO/CIOspecializing in Japanese equities investment.
For those who may not know about them, these Youtube videos by th famous Bob Monks really get at some key pointsat the leading edge of (needed) corporate governance reformin his wonderful clear way:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ragmonks
Also, Bob's blog is located at http://www.ragm.com/.