Over the past few weeks there has been quite a lot of interest in the extent to which UK companies are giving employees a say in corporate governance. As most people will know, the revised UK Corporate Governance Code that came into force this year enc…Read more…
Monopoly industries, monopoly owners
One of of the things I find myself spending time reading and thinking about lately is the interaction between concentration of companies (or oligopoly) within industries, and concentration of ownership of those same companies.
There have been a number…Read more…
Infrastructure investment politics
I was interested to see a piece in City AM recently from Robert Colvile of the Centre for Policy Studies about Labour’s plans for nationalisation of utilities. I’m interested in this issue as it cuts across politics and ownership, which is, obviously, …Read more…
Corporate governance, again
There have been a few developments over the past week or two that play into the argument I’ve been making that 1990s-style corporate governance is come under serious pressure to change.
1. Polling from the resolutely centrist Progressive Cen…Read more…
The loyalty ‘penalty’
A few months back I blogged some initial thoughts about the idea of loyalty. To recap, I find it jarring that various bodies increasingly try and encourage us to be disloyal. While I get that it’s silly to be ‘loyal’ to a utility provider (or insert yo…Read more…
Shareholders vs bill payers
I blogged last year that I thought the position of shareholders relative to other stakeholders was going to come into sharper focus in politics. Here’s a piece from my favourite newspaper this weekend to make the point:
It’s a pretty simple message:…Read more…
Talking to my family about politics
Easter is one of those special times of the year when we get to spend time with family members we don’t see often enough… and to be deeply shocked at how differently even close relatives view the world.
I’m a fully paid-up metropolitan lefty Remaine…Read more…
Bauman and consumer loyalty
a little snippet from Globalization: The Human Consequences:
Ideally, nothing should be embraced by a consumer firmly, nothing should command a commitment till death do us part, no needs should be seen as fully satisfied, no desires considered ultimate…Read more…
More workers on boards news…
Wisconsin Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin has issued a report calling for workers to elect a third of the board of directors.
The aggregate evidence from comparison countries provides strong support for the theory that worker empowerment can foster seve…Read more…
Workers on the board at…. Walmart?
If there were any doubt the idea of employee representation at board level is gaining momentum in some unusual places, then take a look at this:
Murray believes that, if there had been a meaningful number of people with a stake in Walmart’s longer-term…Read more…
What business are asset managers in?
Another issue I am starting to look at in more detail is the overlap between stock-lending, shorting and other activity. I was recently pointed in the direction of some of BlackRock’s literature on stock-lending and it fed my sense that at least parts …Read more…
Outsourcing hell – continued
If anyone were in anyone doubt that the outsourcing sector is in big trouble, Friday saw Interserve’s precarious position finally resolved. The major shareholder – US hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management – voted against the proposed debt-for-equity swa…Read more…
Interserve & hedge funds
The ongoing battle at Interserve is grimly fascinating. The company’s biggest shareholder is hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management which is trying to scupper the board’s plans for a debt-for-equity swap. This would (obviously) be bad news for existing s…Read more…
Changing of the guard in corporate governance
I have been blogging a lot recently about employee representation on boards. This is partly because I’m an advocate of it, partly because no-one else seems to be tracking the issue properly and partly because I think the issue is part of a significant …Read more…
Wolfgang Streeck snippets
A couple of excerpts from How Will Capitalism End that resonates with me. The first has obvious application to Brexit (though this was written before it) though it also describes how I feel sometimes looking at ESG land.
[T]he arenas of distributi…Read more…
Ted Baker chief exec departure and workers on boards
I’m still tracking company announcements on if/how they are complying with the UK Corp Gov Code in respect of employee voice.
I’ve found two more choosing to designate an existing NED as employee representative. The first is the recruiter Hays, announ…Read more…
Tech bros and ‘win win’
Another couple of snippets from Winners Take All. This first quote is from a tech writer called Greg Ferenstein who interviewed lots of technology founders and tried to distil their ideas into a *cough* philosophy.
“The basis of old government is the n…Read more…
Winners Take All
This is a really interesting book (based on the first third, anyway) looking at philanthrocapitalism. It’s a long-overdue critique of the super-wealthy, such tech bros and venture capitalists who fund them, and their efforts to tackle social prob…Read more…
Stakeholder governance… in banks
Hat-tip to Responsible Investor for a fascinating news story about Dutch bank De Volksbank considering giving stakeholders such as employees and customers a vote at their AGM alongside shareholders. This is framed in terms of shift away from shareholde…Read more…
Asset managers and stakeholders
There’s a proliferation of comment pieces from asset managers lately seeking to demonstrate that they “get it” when it comes to lack of trust in business and finance. A lot of these simply re-tread the same ground, with more exhortations to more stewar…Read more…