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SOX
by leon on December 1, 2007
Earlier this month, I did a blog entry explaining why Sarbanes-Oxley was unlikely to get overhauled in the near future. Simply put, businesses and auditors are getting used to it and getting rid of i...
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shareholder activism
by leon on December 1, 2007
This week's extraordinary decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to let companies deny shareholders access to annual proxy ballots is another victory for the bosses and companies like...
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corporate crime
by leon on November 29, 2007
Instead of 24-30 years in jail, Conrad Black might only be looking at four and a half years, if a secret pre-sentencing report is given any weight.The document, reports The Times, claims the scope of...
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Ethics
by leon on November 29, 2007
First the good news. The number of formal ethics and compliance programs is on the rise. And companies with well-implemented programs are doing more reporting.The bad news, according to a new survey,...
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strategy
by leon on November 28, 2007
Like globalisation and information technology, climate change is transforming business, society, politics, workplaces, careers and management. In fact, it might in the end have an even bigger impact ...
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markets
by leon on November 28, 2007
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's $7.5 billion bailout of Citigroup, for a near 5 per cent stake, has been portrayed as an expression of confidence in Citigroup, a real win-win which at least ...
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Ethics
by leon on November 28, 2007
Wal-Mart continues to come in very low on the Corporate Equality Index 2008 which assess companies on how they go about treating their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GBLT) workers. Criteria ...
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corporate governance
by leon on November 28, 2007
The fallout from the Enron trial continues. The case was so big, the malfeasance so horrifying in its depth and pathology, that one suspects the fallout will be around for some time. It resulted in S...
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markets
by leon on November 27, 2007
There is nothing wrong with making bags of money from private equity. But questions are being raised about who actually makes the profits.The Financial Times reports that a new study, based on data f...
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SOX
by leon on November 27, 2007
The supply chain is never the sexiest of topics. But it's become absolutely critical in a global economy where consumers have more power and where pressures for accountability are growing. So wha...
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regulators
by leon on November 24, 2007
Heads are rolling after the massive blunder that has seen the two computer discs carrying the private information of 25 million child benefit claimants in Britain going missing. And the Chancellor of...
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markets
by leon on November 23, 2007
Which way for the US economy? As reported in the Knowledge@WP Carey series, Dr. Ken Mayland, president of Ohio-based ClearView Economics maintains that the supposed threats to the US economy are over...
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Ethics
by leon on November 23, 2007
In the past, I have done blog entries looking at the difference between morality and ethics and questioning why business schools have failed to address this issue.Now it's good to read a report t...
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Ethics
by leon on November 22, 2007
Here is a list of frequently asked questions you get at leadership training workshops focusing on ethics. Having come along to a few of these to help out, I'm always struck that the same question...
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markets
by leon on November 22, 2007
Investors might have lost a fortune with Wall Street's top banks writing off billions in trading losses related to the credit crunch, sparked by by defaults on sub-prime mortgages. Even Swiss Re,...
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regulators
by leon on November 21, 2007
Five years on, and cost is still the big issue surrounding Sarbanes-Oxley. Non-compliance with Section 404 spells disaster for companies with massive falls in the value of the stock.But the corporate...
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markets
by leon on November 21, 2007
The subprime meltdown is the latest example of flawed logic that resulted in a bubble and house of cards. I mean, what were these people thinking? You have people with no proof of income being able t...
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Compliance
by leon on November 21, 2007
Earlier this year, I did an entry looking at how the virtual world of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games needs regulation. Obviously police are waking up to this with revelations about t...
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risk
by leon on November 20, 2007
With Barclay's Bank, Britain's third biggest bank, joining the growing list of banks taking multi-billion hits on subprime and with Goldman Sachs warning that leveraged investors may need to...
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corporate governance
by leon on November 20, 2007
With serious questions around the Securities and Exchange Commission's plans to revamp board election, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, it's worth looking at alternative proposals to i...
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shareholder activism
by leon on November 19, 2007
When I attend annual meetings, I am often struck that no-one asks hard questions. The kind that make the CEO and directors squirm.PricewaterhouseCoopers has put out a list of questions to ask at shar...
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corporate crime
by leon on November 17, 2007
Is it an early Christmas present for Conrad Black? Facing the possibility of at least 15 years in jail, Black has won a 10-day postponement of his scheduled Nov. 30 sentencing. His lawyer Jeffrey Ste...
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SOX
by leon on November 16, 2007
Interesting data coming out suggests that Sarbanes-Oxley is unlikely to be overhauled. That's despite the jury still out on its effectiveness.But a study released last week by Protiviti has found...
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Ethics
by leon on November 16, 2007
Every board, organization and employee comes across ethical dilemmas. After discussing these issues with ethicists, I have put together a framework to resolve them. There is no right or wrong answer ...
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Accounting
by leon on November 16, 2007
If you are a manager, chief financial officer or auditor working for a company that comes out with a restatement, start looking for another job. That's the only conclusion you can draw from a new...
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Ethics
by leon on November 15, 2007
So Yahoo has reached a settlement with the families of Chinese journalists who were jailed after the company ratted on them. It comes after a savaging from Congressional representatives but this case...
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markets
by leon on November 14, 2007
Last week, I did a blog entry warning that wall street faces a "level three storm" with a change in an accounting rule that will force banks to rate their assets according to how liquid the...
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strategy
by leon on November 14, 2007
The good news is that sustainability is on the boardroom agenda. The bad news is that business doesn't know what to do about it.A new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Action or Aspiratio...
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strategy
by leon on November 13, 2007
The climate change industry is in its early stages and it's worth monitoring. Business is now obsessed with carbon and carbon neutrality, which is difficult to define because we don't yet hav...
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Accounting
by leon on November 13, 2007
What's wrong with this picture? When bean counting giant Grant Thornton asked chief financial officers and senior comptrollers whether they thought auditors were responsible for detecting any and...
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strategy
by leon on November 13, 2007
Facebook's plans for world domination have been revealed.In an interview in Portfolio.com, the company's chief financial officer Gideon Yu laid his cards on the table. ""There are t...
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Compliance
by leon on November 13, 2007
The Government Accountability Office has once more canned the Internal Revenue Service for its sloppy internal controls, legacy systems and dodgy Information Security.In its report, the GAO said the ...
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corporate crime
by leon on November 12, 2007
Bad news for the British Government's attempt to cover up questions about BAE bribes to the Saudi Arabian government with two anti-arms trade groups, Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner Ho...
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markets
by leon on November 11, 2007
With expectations that the world's biggest miner BHP Billiton will have to sweeten its bid for Rio Tinto, it's clear that Rio shareholders are in a very strong position. But the question is w...
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Compliance
by leon on November 9, 2007
Not that long ago, I did a blog entry looking at a suggestion from Bearing Point's information technology global solutions leader Rob Hillard suggesting that companies should replace one-on-one e...
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corporate governance
by leon on November 9, 2007
Rupert Murdoch continues to rewrite the rules of corporate governance by appointing natalie Bancroft, a 27-year old opera singer, to the board of his global media empire. A mezzo-soprano who lives in...
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Ethics
by leon on November 8, 2007
It's often said that you can't teach ethics. But that's not the same as saying that ethical values can't be passed on. The problem with ethics awareness programs is that it's diff...
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corporate crime
by leon on November 8, 2007
On the face of it, Conrad Black is facing a long spell behind bars after losing his 11th hour bid to stay out of jail failed when the judge refused to overturn his fraud conviction.Still, Black will ...
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markets
by leon on November 8, 2007
As the Financial Times pointed out this week, an "information problem" lies at the bottom of the latest financial market turmoil. Let's put it simply: no-one knows how big the losses ar...
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corporate governance
by leon on November 7, 2007
Good news and bad news for CEOs. The level of CEO turnover has eased back slightly but it's still insecure times for the top brass, according to the latest Booz Allen Hamilton study.CEO turnover ...
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SOX
by leon on November 7, 2007
When Sarbanes-Oxley was introduced in 2002, it was supposed to enhance investor protection by improving the quality of information and increasing the transparency of corporations. Now a new study has...
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Ethics
by leon on November 6, 2007
In September, President George W. Bush signed a new lobbying reform bill now requires lawmakers to disclose more about their efforts to fund targeted spending projects, or earmarks, and will bar Hous...
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corporate crime
by leon on November 5, 2007
Federal investigations into corporate fraud are plummeting.And the question is why? Is it because the Corporate Fraud Task Force, created by President George W. Bush's executive order in July 200...
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markets
by leon on November 5, 2007
Last week, Merrill Lynch's Stanley O'Neal who "retired" after plunging his bank into an $8.4 billion third-quarter writedown that left it with a $2.2 billion loss - the biggest quar...
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executive pay
by leon on November 5, 2007
Last week, I talked about Merrill Lynch's appalling reward for failure when it sent former chief executive Stanley O'Neal with $160 million-plus in handouts after plunging the bank into its b...
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Ethics
by leon on November 4, 2007
Two watchdog organizations are trying to get the Appropriations Committee to wipe $59 million worth of earmark requests in the 2008 defense spending bill for BAE and ProLogic. Both companies are unde...
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markets
by leon on November 2, 2007
Less than a day after the Fed cut interest rates to stave off recession, and Wall Street is in the grip of fear and loathing. The big indices fell 2 per cent, led by the financial sector headed up by...
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Accounting
by leon on November 2, 2007
Hat tip to Francine McKenna at Re: The Auditors for alerting to us the prospect of entrepreneurial litigation funders threatening to drive auditors out of business.Certainly the case of third party f...
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Ethics
by leon on November 1, 2007
In the past, I have talked about the difficulties companies have implementing codes of ethics.It could be argued that Enron, Parmalat and WorldCom are examples of the spectacular failure of the ethic...
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risk
by leon on November 1, 2007
More companies recognize the risks of climate change, but they're struggling to deal with it, according to a new global study. The survey canvassed the views of 2400 companies.The ISS RiskMetric ...
