In his seminal text Experiences in Groups, the late psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion said healthy groups shared the following characteristics:1. A common purpose, either in overcoming an enemy or pursuing...

We know all about high-level perpetrators of of securities frauds. Plenty of attention has been placed on the Ken Lays of this world.But little attention has been given to the scam-meisters who sell...

All over the world, governments are looking at nuclear energy as the answer to climate change.But nuclear power is the most contentious and emotive of all methods of energy production. You have the...

Sarbanes-Oxley might have made boards larger and more independent but it's also made them more expensive.A University of Georgia study, which drew on data of more than 8000 firms of various sizes...

In an extraordinary decision, the President has delivered a gift to Wall Street fat cats by refusing to back investors in a case that will affect the victims who had been defrauded by parties aiding...

Current trends in search technology and how these can be tapped to help the growth of online advertising, will be discussed during the Red Herring East Technology Event to be held on June 26-28, 2007...

Employees say they're more likely to stay in organisations with strong ethical cultures than those that are lacking, according to new research.As far as revelations go, it's hardly earth...

The Blair Government was kidding itself a few months ago when thought it would put a lid on the fallout from BAE's shenanigans.The UK Government had pulled the corruption probe into BAE's...

Nearly five years ago, Congress rushed through the sarbanes-oxley legislation. The aim was to clamp down on fraud and restore investor confidence.Now new figures show how badly it failed.Despite...

With Conrad Black's trial drawing to a close, and the former media mogul refusing to testify , questions are now arising whether the guy will get convicted. Whatever his excesses, some are...

In China, more than 400,000 people die every year as a result of air pollution, an estimated 190 million people drink water so contaminated that it makes them sick and 40 per cent of its land mass is...

Company reports might be misleading investors by distorting their true market value, according to a new study.The study, from London's Cass Business School, found that conventional measures...

Here's a warning to America. Within the next eight years, London will overtake New York as the world's financial hub, and it will rival Silicon Valley as a technology centre.And it's got...

If we needed any further evidence that Sarbanes-Oxley was of not much use to whistleblowers, it came last week when the first person to win whistleblower protection under SOX ended up losing his...

The board that polices auditors has put the corporate world on notice that it's monitoring how companies and beancounters make the transition to Enron-style "fair value" accounting.The...

I have spent more years than I care to remember examining the approaches different companies all over the world take to corporate social responsibility (CSR). And I have come to the view that most...

Earlier this year, I looked at how an Australian regulatory authority, the Takeovers Panel, was moving to address conflicts of interest that occur in private equity takeovers where managers and...

Howard Gardner is best known for his pioneering work on multiple intelligences, a framework that basically sets out our strengths and weaknesses across many areas.Now he has started used that...

Climate change is shaping up as a nightmare liability issue for companies, insurers and directors.Consider these scenarios: a utility has a power outage caused by a climate change-related extreme...