This issue of Harvard Business Review includes, as many prior issues did, an article decrying the perils of short-termism and supporting measures for insulating corporate leaders from the outside pressures that allegedly make them myopic...
While we have seen unparalleled innovation in the 21st century, we have also witnessed the damaging unintended consequences of unchecked technologies...
Critics charge that in today’s heavily traded capital markets, executives are increasingly incentivized to manage in tiny, short-term windows, with an eager eye on their stock-based compensation and a fearful one on activist hedge funds. In any case, something isn’t working: The number of...
Sometimes it takes something bad to instigate something good. A hard lesson — a scandal, a breach, a product failure — can make us look at a problem head-on and ask ourselves how to fix it...
New technologies have been disrupting business for decades, especially since the internet became widespread in the late 1990s. But a new wave of innovation, centered on artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the internet of things, is now intensifying the pace and magnitude of disruption...
Since the onset of Covid-19, corporate boards have faced a string of difficult decisions. Take the question of dividend payments: Ordinarily, the decision would be a relatively straightforward matter of applying a stated dividend policy, following past practice, or choosing an amount based on shareholder expectations and the company’s earnings for the period...
Capitalism is in the midst of a once-in-a-generation reckoning as the general public and corporate executives alike question the old model of shareholder primacy and call for corporationsto identify a purpose that serves all stakeholders, not just investors...
With the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, followed by months of Black Lives Matter protests, through to the shooting of Jacob Blake on August 23, leaders in the United States and around the world have finally begun to recognize the racial inequities embedded deep in the systems in which we operate each day: neighborhoods, schools, stores, banks, courts...
Over the past decade, business leaders have had to face an uncomfortable truth: It’s become impossible to sit at the head of a company and not address the threat of cyber risk...
One factor that reinforces the racial status quo on boards is the way in which new directors are typically recruited. These systems are especially ...
After the financial crisis of the late 1990s, most Asian countries reformed their governance codes and regulations around management accountability and transparency...
Another director we interviewed said,“The new directors [on our board ] brought not just a diversity of opinions and perspectives, but a diversity of ...
This will require a new governance form that makes a company's obligations to fulfill its purpose enforceable. For such a governance form to be ...
Despite persistent efforts to tackle underrepresentation of women on corporate boards, most boardrooms remain mostly male. The slow progress on gender diversity has frustrated policymakers, industry groups, and institutional investors, many of whom have publicly advocated for inclusion of women and minorities among the top ranks of management...
People disagree, for example, on such basic matters as the purpose of the corporation, the role of corporate boards of directors , the rights of ...
A number of governments (notably those in India, California, and parts of Europe) are pushing for greater female representation in the boardroom. And several studies suggest why: Having women on the board results better acquisition and investment decisions and in less aggressive risk-taking, yielding benefits for shareholders. What’s less clear is why these effects happen...
... tried-and-tested approach; creating independent advisory boards is another ... This is good advice, so long as the money saved is invested wisely ...
Why CEOs Surround M&A Announcements with Unrelated Good News .... His research interests include corporate governance , as well as the ...
The agendas of company boards are so packed that it’s hard to get to every question and concern during regular meetings. So between meetings, directors do what members of a team always do in this situation: They start having conversations on the side. Conducted properly, side discussions allow directors to work together efficiently—to trade opinions, share information, and exert influence...
The news about U.S. women’s presence in the C Suite – and especially the CEO job – has been pretty bleak. Nationwide fewer than 5% of CEOs of public companies are women. In the Fortune 500, that number actually fell by 25% between 2017 and 2018, dipping from 32 (6.4%) to 24 (4.8%), before rising back in 2019...
Nearly three-quarters of the directors responding to the National Association of Corporate Directors' latest corporate governance survey say that ...
Corporate boards of directors must tackle questions about sustainability in a new and urgent manner. If they don’t, they will hear from investors about their lack of action. In just the latest indication of the investor community’s increasing scrutiny on sustainability, Yahoo announced in 2018 that it would start publishing sustainability ratings for publicly traded companies...
Driving sustainable business practices in companies requires involvement from boards of directors . And there is some evidence that sustainability is ...
On January 1, California law said that all locally headquartered publicly traded companies must have at least one female director by 2020. While new to the U.S., mandates to increase gender diversity on corporate boards are common elsewhere. For example, Norway, Spain, France, and Iceland all have laws requiring that women comprise at least 40% of boards at publicly listed companies...