Showing results by author : Mark Goyder

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Sixteen Questions from the Cadbury takeover
posted by Mark Goyder  on January 21, 2010

So many questions arise from this takeover. Some of them are raised by Will Hutton and Philip Blond in today’s FT. But while Hutton and Blond (rightly) worry about the UK national interest, the outcome actually appears to make little sense in terms of the self interest of most of the people involved.

Even if you accept that the stock market should be left to get on with the business of creating long term shareholder value, here are questions that the major participants in that system need to answer.

They are all summarised in one key question: If we accept that an efficient capitalism needs effective stewardship, why are the implications of stewardship ignored in a takeover situation?

Tomorrow’s Company is now creating a forum which will, among other things, be examining these questions...


City needs to explain its value added
posted by Mark Goyder  on September 23, 2009

Denial is in the air. First a leading figure in motors sport brands Flavio Briatore’s  life ban as “excessive”. Then the director of the CBI’s UK Contractors' Group says that the OFT’s fines for construction companies are “perverse and excessive” on the grounds that “cover pricing was endemic” and others were doing it.


Stewardship and football
posted by Mark Goyder  on August 20, 2009

Look at any well-run private or family business. You find a close alignment between the owners of its shares and the board and the senior people running the business.
 
There are vigorous conversations going on in which the owners challenge the managers about past decisions and future directions.
 
Views differ, but there is a shared commitment to the long term success of enterprise. In these companies accountability works and so do incentives...


20 solutions for 2020: a better capitalism with stronger governance
posted by Mark Goyder  on June 15, 2009

 
 
We need a better capitalism, with stronger governance.
 
 How can we get mainstream business more closely aligned to making money from meeting the needs of society. How can we optimise social impact and achieve commercial returns?
 
At the second panel of the Corporation 2020 conference, it began to be clear to me. From the impressive pioneering of the social investors around me on the panel comes the eveidence of what works. From the depressing critique of Robert Johnson at the first panel, we have the evidence that the public wants change.
 
Our task now is to develop a joined-up agenda that shows ordinary savers and investors that they can vote with their wallets, and to put in place rules and frameworks that
start to create a stronger, more mainstream, market place in admirable behaviour.
In my paper I can offer the first 20 stewardship solutions - who would like to add to the list?


Get the bankers to believe in the afterlife!
posted by Mark Goyder  on June 10, 2009

The Conference on the future of the corporation opened with a brilliant account of the causes of the crisis from economist Robert Johnson.
It’s worth recounting - see below - because of where it leaves us in our search for solutions. Johnson is a distinguished economist and his key insight, rather like Steve Lydenberg in his paper for the conference (which is accessible on this link) is that we have allowed clever technicians and their theories to lull us into a false sense of security that has disabled us from exercising due prudence.
 
But – and her is the key thing for tomorrow’s Company – people like Johnson do not have the answer at the micro level. They end up saying that we need better corporate governance. Which is where my own contribution came in later in the morning. The macro-economists need some micro-thinking about the change we need at the level of individual firms!
Hence the interest in the stewardship agenda, and my paper on this theme that is now available here

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