Environmental, Social & Governance Briefs

Why voting in dual class shares is a value maximizing result, but empty voting has become a systemic risk. Mutual fund advisors have a lack of economic interest, despite having the voting rights to the associated securities.

Increasing recognition of the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities on portfolio value is driving institutional investors engagement with companies on ESG.

Brands of all sizes and in all industries are increasingly being impacted by America’s divisive political, social and cultural storms. This new reality makes the roles of communications leaders like CCOs and CMOs as strategic decision makers, planners and guardians of a brand’s goodwill more vital—and more challenging—than ever before.

Recent settlements in two cases appear to have been heavily influenced by the Investors Bancorp decision in ways that do not bode well for directors who determine their own compensation under shareholder-approved plans that do not limit their discretion to amounts that would not make it worthwhile for the plaintiffs’ lawyers to sue, or could be protected by the business judgment rule.

Boards, CEOs, and CFOs need to dramatically raise the bar, demanding better risk and internal audit processes and better metrics to measure the real value-add from internal audit and risk spending. A new approach to assurance, “Strategy and Value Oversight” and specific end result metrics are proposed, metrics capable of helping companies create and preserve long-term value and meet escalating expectations of powerful institutional investors, regulators, and others.

Earlier this year, The Conference Board and Mission Measurement announced a new partnership to benchmark social outcomes data. Using Mission Measurement’s Impact Genome Project® (IGP), the two organizations will collect and analyze data on the social outcomes of corporations’ charitable contributions. Companies are now invited to participate in the IGP and to share their impact measurement data.

“Culture” is the word of the moment: societal culture, organizational culture, corporate culture. The media blames culture—and rightfully so—when things at an organization go bad, referencing it as the reason for why people break the rules, disrespect others and go against societal values. But culture is also a good thing that leads to innovation, accomplishment and integrity. Managing culture is the responsibility of everyone in an organization and the board should set the tone.

(This is the second part of a two-part series on the philosophy of filling boards with competent directors, making them more effective, and rebuilding them when necessary.) There are three facets of vision capability: Focus: Does a candidate or sitting director tend toward hindsight, insight or foresight? Range: Is a director able to contribute in each of the three areas? Proficiency: Where does a director demonstrate mastery [or notable weakness]?

Michigan nonprofit Eastern Market Corporation (EMC) was created in 2006 to revitalize Detroit’s public market and adjacent food district. EMC has pivoted from priming the pump to confronting this wave to ensure that the market’s core values are not lost and that racial equity is strengthened as a tsunami of new real estate investment hits the Eastern Market District.

Last winter’s air pollution control plan in the larger Beijing area was unprecedented both in scale and intensity. The action plan was part of a much broader, central government-led effort to tackle China’s pervasive air pollution problem and significantly ramp up environmental protection efforts in general. It is highly unlikely at this point that the government will backtrack on this issue, given the long-term economic and political ramifications of doing so.