Board Independence - Publications - Faculty & Research

19 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Rupert Murdoch and the Seeds of Moral Hazard

fulfill its independent fiduciary responsibilities in overseeing this global organization? While there is a temptation to pile on, I would prefer to comment on what can be learned from this situation. This and other leadership crises of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Journalism & News; Publishing

14 Aug 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Manager's Guide to Leveraging Disruption

drive disruption—customers do. A recent book argues that successful disruptors spot and serve emerging customer needs faster than larger competitors. How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.comBook retailers were among... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 3, 2007

target shareholders but are costly to target fund directors. Such mergers are more likely when funds underperform and their boards have a larger percentage of independent trustees, suggesting that... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Shareholders Key to Corporate Reform

more balanced and comprehensive if management believes that directors might seek an independent opinion. It should be noted that there is a precedent for providing directors with independent funding: The... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery & Rhonda Kaufman

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

successors is one of the principal jobs of the CEO. It can't be done unless the CEO is driving that process—remember, the process is a critical part of how the company is managed over a period of years. It's not an event. The board needs... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

well established, and board members are trying to do the right thing. How do we make boards even stronger? Some good ideas I've heard recently call for getting the independent... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

11 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Women Entrepreneurs Usher in the Next Generation

most important." I spend my life trying to make the next generation a little less neurotic about money.— Joline Godfrey, Independent Means, Inc. As the founder and CEO of Independent Means, Inc., a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

corporate governance, such as the presence of engaged independent board members and other measures, is vital for this separation to work well. “But if management is not under shareholders’ control,”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

21 Jan 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Market Basket’s Lessons About Buyouts

independent members, chosen by both sides. Problem resolved? No. Another buyout was proposed but couldn't be agreed on. The battle moved to the board: Mike's branch wanted to invest aggressively in the business; George's branch wanted... View Details

Keywords: Retail

06 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Determinants of Corporate Venture Capital Success

dimensions. The most obvious was the structure of the organization. While this was a corporate division rather than an independent partnership (like most venture organizations), the XTV partners crafted an agreement with Xerox that... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner

08 Jul 2002
What Do You Think?

Have We Carried the Concept of Alignment Too Far?

As John Apen points out, "Alignment works only if CEOs and boards have the same time perspective as the other two groups (investors and employees)... top managers' and Wall Street goals were all short term.…" C. J.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

XTV: Xerox’s Attempted Recovery From “Fumbling the Future”

Chesbrough XTV was given $30 million to manage. It was set up formally as a corporate division within Xerox, but Adams negotiated special terms that mimicked many aspects of independent venture capital firms. Eighty percent of the gains... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Sharing the Responsibility of Corporate Governance

coupled with regular meetings of the independent directors is critical to the independent directors' ability to function effectively as a counterweight to management. When interviewing candidates for CEO,... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

Once upon a time, there were two kinds of businesses. On the one hand, there were public and privately owned companies such as those that existed in Western-style democracies, which had boards of directors and accountability to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

SEC Commissioner Sees “Healing and Reform”

the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the Senate, said that the new law's value is that it helps eliminate conflicts of interest between auditors and a company's board of directors by decreeing that directors establish an View Details

Keywords: by Catherine Walsh

03 Nov 2003
What Do You Think?

Can Investors Have Too Much Accounting Transparency?

guidelines being put forth in several member countries of the E.U. in response to accounting improprieties at Ahold and other European companies. Among other things, Sarbanes-Oxley seeks more independent directors on View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

18 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The Bias of Wall Street Analysts

time, but somehow the cost of keeping them on board has been justified. The existence of an analyst who provides research on a particular company is attractive on several grounds. The primary source of revenue that is arguably related to... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

21 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Good Banks, Bad Banks, and Government’s Role as Fixer

the largest investors in bonds—banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds—aren't willing to pay because they think they do a much better job than the rating agencies. What I propose is a neutral third-party approach to ratings. The SEC would designate a knowledgeable... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

Supplement 411-027 To weather the 2009 financial crisis, Eden McCallum's cofounders must renegotiate partners' compensation, attract independent consultants to meet different client demands, and reassure their advisory View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

they merely added a new layer of legal obligations for governance without improving the quality of people serving on the boards or changing their behavioral dynamics. The author—formerly the president or chairman of two global financial... View Details