Is Incentive Compensation a True Motivator?
“Pay for performance” – the concept that executives’ compensation should be commensurate with the value they deliver to shareholders – has become a household phrase in recent years. The popular...
View ArticleWhom Do Public Companies Now Serve?
Historically, there has been little debate about whom U.S. public companies and their boards serve. The unequivocal answer has always been: their shareholders. The answer to this question is now...
View ArticleThe Critical Task of Succession Planning
Succession planning – the practice of identifying and developing in-house candidates for top executive positions – is perhaps the most important job of corporate boards. Without a strong...
View ArticleSay on Pay: A New Era for Shareholder-Board Dynamics
The new federal requirement that public companies submit executive compensation programs for nonbinding shareholder votes (known as “say on pay”) will have effects ranging from significant to profound....
View ArticleDodd-Frank Prompts Recollections of Sarbox
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is resulting in significant changes affecting the boards of public companies. Among the resulting rules are those requiring greater...
View ArticleDirectors Required to Assess Consultants’ Objectivity
Over the past decade, there has been increasing regulatory and governance pressure on companies to assure that their directors are independent – that is, free of any affiliations that might...
View ArticleClawback Requirement Removes Board Discretion
Amid mounting pressure on executive compensation in recent years, the term “clawbacks” has been used with increasing frequency. Clawbacks are policies that allow corporate boards to recoup...
View ArticleReciprocal Loyalty Between a Company and its Workers
In northern Minnesota, a few miles from the Canadian border on the sprawling Lake of the Woods, lies the town of Warroad. During the long winter, there may be as many ice-fishing huts on the lake as...
View ArticleWhat About the Compensation of Workers?
Much to the pleasure of CEOs at large public companies, their average total compensation has risen. After declining with corporate profits amid recession from 2008 to 2009, their average compensation...
View ArticlePrincipled Capitalism: A Pragmatic Approach to Corporate Governance
Capitalism is under attack in many quarters. In the wake of the recent – and current – economic crisis, abundant articles have been published questioning the viability of capitalism as an effective and...
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