Corporate Board articles from March 2002

Corporate Board archives from March 2002

Into the boardroom.(Excerpt)
March 1, 2002... Though today he is one of America's most noted corporate and Washington insiders, 30 years ago Vernon Jordan was very much a boardroom trailblazer. As one of the first generation black corporate directors, Jordan has a unique view on what it...

The board and CEO succession.
March 1, 2002... The one keystone role of any corporate board is to hire and supervise a chief executive. Despite this central mandate, however, too few boards do a very good job of leading and managing the succession process. What structural changes should a...

Is corporate governance the solution or the problem?
March 1, 2002... Corporate governance as a field of business study has gained new sophistication over the past decade, but often it seems that the more we learn about governance, the less we know. Why do our governance codes and guidelines seem to add little to...

Changing leadership needs: A board action plan.
March 1, 2002... As companies grow and evolve, their leadership needs change. Hiring the right CEO and successfully assimilating him or her into the company are two of the board's most critical responsibilities. It is a familiar story. The company's...

Committees: A glimpse at the future boardroom.
March 1, 2002... Corporate boards have faced a wave of demands and challenges over the past decade. Now, we are seeing a counterwave of boardroom changes designed to meet this new environment. James Reda, a CEO and board pay authority; tells how compensation...

Board compensation committees are gaining clout. (Boardroom Composition).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The compensation committee of the board of U.S. companies is likely to play a more important role in the strategic direction of the company. It will set performance standards for executive pay and influence the quality of companies' corporate...

Board pay declined, but CEO pay rose in 2001. (Compensation & Recruitment).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Median total compensation for outside (non-employee) directors of boards in 2001 was down from 2000 in all three major industry sectors covered in The Conference Board's annual study of outside director pay. The study is based on a survey of...

New SEC rules require greater disclosure of equity pay. (Disclosure).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules at the end of 2001 greatly increasing equity pay disclosure requirements for domestic public companies. The new rules will apply to any Form 10-K filed for fiscal years ending on or after...

Severance benefits still vary widely. (Pensions & Benefits).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A Towers Perrin study of over 100 U.S. and Canadian firms shows that, while severance protection of some form exists at over 90 percent of the companies, there are wide philosophical divides. These are reflected by rewards for length of service...

Good corporate governance is a growing concern for investors. (Shareholders & Investors).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Over the last 18 months, the worst bear market in memory has wiped out an estimated $1 trillion in shareholder value. Now more then ever, investors are focused on corporate governance and disclosure issues, according to a 2001 year-end survey...

Making Mergers Work. (Books Received).
March 1, 2002... Making Mergers Work. Edited by Jeffrey A. Schmidt. Towers Perrin/SHRM. $49.95. A collection of useful articles and insights on the people side of mergers, produced for the Society for Human Resource Management.

Ten years ago in The Corporate Board. (Retrospectives).
March 1, 2002... Making market mechanisms work is very hard. We haven't figured out how to tap competitive energy in very large and critical parts of the economy, like education and health treatment or large parts of communication and transportation. Bill...

Five years ago in The Corporate Board. (Retrospectives).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Is fraudulent financial reporting our leading growth industry? It certainly seemed so in the 1980s, and how much has really changed since? In this environment, membership on the audit committee may be the most important responsibility a...

Spoken & Written: Articles & speeches.
March 1, 2002... I am constantly amazed when I see employers treat departing employees like criminals. These are the very people, often, who have given these employers the best years of their lives. Sometimes they have voluntarily taken pay cuts, weeks off...

Directors' Register: Recent board elections.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Barnes Group Inc. has elected to its board Donald W. Griffin, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Olin Corporation. Bemis Company, Inc. has elected to its board Barbara L. Johnson, vice president and treasurer of Carleton...

Dr. Madhav Mehra: Good governance for the new economies. (Conversations).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... While interest in improving corporate governance has grown worldwide, some have noticed a growing gap in how the issue is approached from culture to culture. Most governance codes and standards are set in the major industrial countries, such as...

The SEC calls for improvements to Regulation FD. (Disclosure).(fair disclosure)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Commissioner Laura S. Unger of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2001 issued a report examining the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure on the marketplace. In effect since October 2000, the Commission adopted Regulation...

Health care benefits make their biggest cost jump in ten years. (Pensions & Benefits).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The average cost of health care benefits for active employees rose 11.2 percent in 2001, from $4,430 per employee to $4,924, according to a survey by William M. Mercer, Inc. This increase--for a year in which general inflation has held to just...

The Answer to How is Yes. (Books Received).
March 1, 2002... The Answer to How is Yes. By Peter Block. Berrett Koehier. $24.95. Our business pursuits have driven us toward an ever-more efficiency-minded and utilitarian mindset, says the author, but have left us unable to ask "why?" This zen approach to...