Los Angeles Times (August 16)
“America’s top business executives may have bristled over President Trump’s ban on refugees, his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and his decision to bar transgender Americans from the military.” Still, “it wasn’t until the embattled president all but defended white supremacists in the aftermath of the deadly clashes over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., that the country’s corporate elite decided they had had enough.”And, “by Wednesday, so many executives had resigned from Trump’s economic advisory and manufacturing councils, including the heads of General Electric Co., Intel Corp. and Campbell Soup Co., that the president announced on Twitter that he was disbanding the panels.”
Tags: Advisory councils, Ban, Business, Campbell Soup, Charlottesville, Clashes, Deadly, Economic, Embattled, Executives, GE, Intel, Manufacturing, Military, Paris accord, Refugees, Transgender, Trump, U.S., White supremacists
Boston Globe (May 18)
“Some complain that the annual shareholder meeting is a vestige of the old days, a tradition whose time has expired in the era of Skype and webcasts. Others insist it’s the last remaining forum for individual investors in publicly traded companies to sit in the same room as a business’s executives and directors.” Despite the efficiencies, “only about 200 out of 10,000 publicly traded US companies hold so-called virtual stockholder meetings.”
Tags: Complain, Directors, Executives, Individual investors, Shareholder meeting, Skype, Tradition, Virtual stockholder meetings, Webcasts
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“Activist investors, a perennial nuisance for chief executives, are becoming an existential threat. Since January, they have helped push out the leaders of three high-profile S&P 500 companies” (AIG, CSX Corp. and Arconic Inc.). Moreover, “they are gunning for the CEOs at other companies,” such as Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. and Avon Products Inc. “So far in 2017, activists have started nine campaigns targeting top management, the fastest pace on record.”
Wall Street Journal (October 30)
“Recent cases show that foreign companies need to be more cognizant of Chinese laws and the nuances of the country’s political system.” Two weeks ago, China detained 18 employees from Crown Resorts Ltd., but authorities “have declined to give details, and no charges have been made public.” More aggressive enforcement has some business consultants “advising foreign executives to steer clear of mainland China for now.”
Tags: Aggressive, Authorities, Charges, China, Crown Resorts, Detained, Enforcement, Executives, Laws, Political system
The Economist (July 18)
“There has always been an element of financial engineering about buy-backs. Can it really be good news if a firm feels it has nothing better to do with its money? An enthusiasm for buy-backs creates the sense that executives are more interested in short-term share-price performance than in the company’s long-term health.” According to some estimates, the number of available shares in U.S. stock markets has been reduced by approximately 6% since 2009 as a result of buy-backs, but the trend appears to be slowing.
Tags: Buy-backs, Enthusiasm, Executives, Financial engineering, Performance, Share price, Short term, U.S.
Washington Post (December 11)
“To get a taste for the havoc possible in today’s digital world, consider the recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.” The massive 100 terabytes of stolen data has revealed “embarrassing details about executive salaries and secret movie negotiations—but the hack is also a worrisome moment in cybersecurity…. It is now a fact that many of the world’s most powerful nations are building cyberforces, either directly or with mercenary proxies. This is creating a cyberspace with plenty of risks.”
Tags: Cyberattack, Cyberforces, Cybersecurity, Digital, Embarrassing, Executives, Havoc, Mercenaries, Movies, Negotiations, Risks, Salaries, Sony, Stolen data
The Economist (October 11)
Bosses today are under more scrutiny than ever. They still need to worry about the press, but they also run “the risk of being pecked by Twitter’s swarm of angry birds. Thanks to the digital revolution, chief executives now live in glass houses. An ill-judged remark can be broadcast to the world in an instant.”
Tags: Bosses, Digital revolution, Executives, Press, Remark, Risk, Scrutiny, Twitter
The Economist (March 1)
Businesses can never fully eliminate fraud, but directors and executives must “treat it like any other unavoidable risk, and manage it professionally.” This means listening carefully to whistleblowers. “Three times as many frauds are discovered by tip-offs than by any other method…. Firms with fraud hotlines, which staff can call anonymously, suffer smaller losses from fraud, and cut by seven months the ‘exposure gap’ between the start of an illicit scheme and its discovery.”
Tags: Anonymous, Businesses, Directors, Discovery, Executives, Exposure gap, Fraud, Hotlines, Losses, Risk, Staff, Tip-offs, Whistleblowers
New Yorker (October 21)
“In 1965, C.E.O.s at big companies earned, on average, about twenty times as much as their typical employee. These days, C.E.O.s earn about two hundred and seventy times as much.” Two close that gap, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will require “companies to disclose the ratio of the C.E.O.’s pay to that of the median worker.” This is unlikely to help. “Even as companies are disclosing more and more, executive pay keeps going up and up. This isn’t a coincidence: the drive for transparency has actually helped fuel the spiraling salaries…. It gives executives a good idea of how much they can get away with.”
Tags: C.E.O., Disclosure, Executives, Median worker, Salaries, SEC, Transparency
Institutional Investor (March 8, 2012)
“Euro zone crisis? What crisis? Top European executives, after putting their businesses on sound footing, are focused on longer-term challenges.” As examples, Institutional Investor points to Unilever and BASF, where effective management is successfully leading back to growth. BASF was also singled out by both buy and sell side analysts for having the best IR department.
“Euro zone crisis? What crisis? Top European executives, after putting their businesses on sound footing, are focused on longer-term challenges.” As examples, Institutional Investor points to Unilever and BASF, where effective management is successfully leading back to growth. BASF was also singled out by both buy and sell side analysts for having the best IR department.
