All Briefs

The chief executive being free to “pick his own board” was long a common, accepted prerogative of boardroom politics. Today, though, it would seem to fly in the face of every current precept of how good corporate governance should function.

The Society for New Communications Research of The Conference Board (SNCR) opened its call for entries for the 2018 Excellence in New Communications Awards, including a call for case studies that utilize digital or social media to advance social good. Entrants are asked to detail their initiatives, technologies used, and success metrics. Submit your case studies at www.conference-board.org/sncrawards2018.

My first trend update of the year focuses on the fast-growing cryptocurrency market. As of today the market is worth more than $700 billion USD. The most famous cryptocurrency is, of course, Bitcoin, but there have always been others—and they are starting to gain prominence and (slowly) entering the world of health, medicine and wellness.

The second half of 2017 was mired by a spate of natural and man-made disasters that focused the attention of corporate philanthropists on their disaster relief practices. GlobalGiving’s Britt Lake, Airbus Foundation’s Andrea Debbane, and The Conference Board’s Citizenship and Philanthropy Center Leader, Jeff Hoffman, recently joined me for a webcast to discuss the future of disaster philanthropy and the most important elements of a disaster philanthropy strategy.

“I think we have a shot at building the best office building in the world” were the words Steve Jobs used to describe Apple’s new headquarters in 2011. The grand vision at the heart of his last project is now being unveiled as Apple finalizes construction on Apple Park. Wired called the facility “insanely great (or just insane),” and in many ways it is exactly that.

This all creates challenges for those who would manage narcissistic individuals. Making matters worse, narcissists refuse to acknowledge that they have a problem. Why would they ask for help, when they think that they are better than anybody else? How can they learn from mistakes if they can’t admit that they’ve ever made one?

As Defined Contribution (DC) plans have become the primary retirement vehicle in more organizations, there is a growing recognition that the method of payout and the options during the payout periods are an important part of making these plans real retirement vehicles rather than just asset accumulation plans.

Should CEO performance be assessed only on “hard” measures? Should soft measures be part of a CEO’s scorecard? Is there a framework that might assist you to tackle the CEO appraisal task?

Bundled payments in health care have gained favor because they can reduce costs and help improve outcomes. In essence, episodic bundles cover the cost of a patient’s care from start to finish—all the procedures, devices, tests, drugs and services a patient will need for, say, a knee replacement or back surgery.