Grant Thornton have issued their annual Corporate Governance Review for 2012; which is a review of the annual reports of the FTSE 350 to analyse their compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Code. The headline grabbing figure is that full compliance with the Code has hit a plateau, with 51% of the FTSE 350 being …
Starting a Business/
Business Laws & Ethics
Will Beneficial Ownership Registers Become Global?
Will beneficial ownership registers spread around the World? Governments have become more and more focused on the risks posed by opaque and confidential corporate structures. In particular the ability of a certain type of person to use such structures to hide the true ownership and origin of funds, thereby facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. …
There are numerous myths that seem to persist about Boards of Directors. Here’s a list of 10 of them. Myth –The phrase “corporate Boards” conventionally refers to statutory, for-profit Boards. However, statutory nonprofit Boards are Boards of a corporation, too, so they’re both “corporate Boards.” Myth — A Board of Directors can delegate its fiduciary …
In an earlier life, I taught business ethics. (Most of my undergraduate college credits are in philosophy.) So here’s a very concise overview of the major “school”s of ethics that are often taught in business ethics programs. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative (1700s) Kant asserted that a belief is an ethical principle if, and only if, …
Issue around management of relationship with Government Minister when on a Government sector board.
Women on boards has been one of the most contentious topics of the last few years. In the UK, we had the Davies Report in February 2011 which set out a series of recommendations with the aim of increasing female representation to 25% on the boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2015. Although this was …
Rina has asked for your advice. She is a long standing director of a holding company for a large group of companies. The holding company Chairman, Quentin, has been a friend and mentor to her over many years. Recently the holding company bought a stake in a small listed company and Rina was appointed to …
Peter has asked for your advice. He is a director of a not-for-profit company in the arts sector. A few months ago his organization’s funding was increased by 40%. The board and management were ecstatic. Shortly after the funding was announced the Chairman informed the board that he had authorised a staff member to change …
