Corporate Board articles from March 2009

Corporate Board archives from March 2009

Independent boards, but ineffective directors.
March 1, 2009... Was SOX a factor that helped cause a failure of boardroom risk oversight? Has SOX led to ineffective, inexperienced boards, too focused on compliance, while disregarding tough strategic questions? One of the noteworthy aspects of the...

Director duties for complex financial instruments.
March 1, 2009... Mortgage firms and banks have recently crafted ever more complex ways to package and market risk. After this arcane financial house of cards collapsed last fall, much of corporate America--and its boards--must now explain why they lost so much...

When stock options sink underwater.
March 1, 2009... For several decades, the most valuable tools in the board's pay setting arsenal have included stock options. Now, with a shrunken stock market and no prospect of a rebound soon, the value of many of those options is underwater--and worthless as...

Aggressive accounting tied to heavy use of option pay.(Audit)
March 1, 2009... U.S. corporations with the most aggressive accounting are far more likely to offer generous stock options for their top managers and engage in share buyback programs, according to a study by Audit Integrity, an independent research firm. ...

Internal audit grows more important in the corporate structure.(Audit)
March 1, 2009... Internal auditors face new opportunities and a growing skills gap. Management increasingly looks to them for business improvement recommendations and coverage of a broader range of strategic and operational risks, according to the Ernst & Young...

Major investor groups urge President Obama to improve proxy access.(Shareholders & Investors)
March 1, 2009... President Barack Obama can help to avoid future market disruptions and also pave the way for a sustainable economy if he protects and strengthens investors' rights to use the shareholder resolution process to highlight corporate risk factors...

Stronger board-shareowner communication can help restore trust.(Shareholders & Investors)
March 1, 2009... Corporations have an opportunity to begin restoring trust and confidence lost in the financial crisis by instituting the cutting-edge governance practice of direct dialogue between directors and investors. Sliding stock market value and...

Danger of legal and ethical violations increases, but not resources for controlling them.(Liability & Litigation)
March 1, 2009... A survey by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) reveals that the declining economy may be increasing the risk of legal and ethics violations in business. In addition, this...

Fraud dangers rise as the financial crisis deepens.(Liability & Litigation)
March 1, 2009... The current financial turbulence and threat of a global recession will result in an increase in white collar crime as well as significant changes in how fraudsters operate, according to the Kroll Global Fraud Report. Kroll expects to see an...

Top managers lack confidence in corporate leadership's plans to counter economic crisis.(Strategy & Finance)
March 1, 2009... A new survey by Booz & Company of 828 senior managers across the globe finds that companies--whether financially weak or strong--are struggling to make the right moves in the current economic environment, with many wavering in their confidence...

Books received.(Bibliography)
March 1, 2009... You Can't Order Change. By Peter S. Cohan. Portfolio/Penguin. $25.95. Jim McNerney has strong turnaround credentials. After establishing himself as one of Jack Welch's proteges at GE, he went on to revive 3M and then Boeing. This book examines...

Recent board elections.(Directors' Register)
March 1, 2009... ACCO Brands Corporation has elected to its board Robert H. Jenkins, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Sundstrand Corporation. Adobe Systems Incorporated has elected to its board Dan Rosensweig, operating principal...

Conversations: Mary Pat McCarthy: what audit committees still miss.(Interview)
March 1, 2009... The past year has not been a good one for the reputation of corporate board audit committees. As a subprime credit crunch blossomed into an overall banking, financial and finally market crisis, audit committees seem too often to have been in...