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executive pay
by leon on November 1, 2007
Hat tip to Broc Romanek's CorporateCounsel.net blog for alerting us to the trend in lawyers' pay. Not quite hedge fund manager territory but impressive nonetheless.Just three years out of law...
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executive pay
by leon on October 31, 2007
Merrill Lynch has shown the world that it's possible to get rich from failure, at least on Wall Street, with its announcement yesterday that after a loss of $2.2 billion last quarter following an...
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strategy
by leon on October 31, 2007
Climate change will affect businesses enormously. But it's not just about risk mitigation. Climate change also opens new opportunities to develop new markets and strategies. Some interesting insi...
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Ethics
by leon on October 31, 2007
Over the last decade, big US corporations have been sued under the 200-plus year Alien Torts Claims Act (ATCA).The ATCA, passed in 1789, was one of the first laws passed by the new American republic....
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Ethics
by leon on October 29, 2007
Beware of charismatic leaders - they're much more susceptible to disastrous ethical lapses.That's the warning from Marianne Jennings, professor of legal and ethical studies in the Department ...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 29, 2007
One thing for sure: the conflict in Iraq has been a nice little earner for certain parties.Most recently, we have had the Los Angeles Times revealing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fessing up...
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SOX
by leon on October 29, 2007
Hat tip to my mates at Audit Trail who have pointed out that Sarbanes-Oxley has emerged as an issue in the run-up to the presidential elections.Over in one corner, we have reports of GOP front-runner...
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Accounting
by leon on October 28, 2007
One world, one set of accounting standards? Think again, it's not going to happen that quickly. There's a fair bit of resistance out there not to mention some unresolved issues.According to a...
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Accounting
by leon on October 26, 2007
With a looming Sarbanes-Oxley deadline for smaller companies, can smaller entities cope when there is an expected shortage of auditors? After December 15, between 13,000 and 14,000 companies will for...
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Accounting
by leon on October 26, 2007
Iraq remains vulnerable to fraud and mismanagement because no-one seems to know what the hell is going on there.A new report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found t...
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markets
by leon on October 25, 2007
This week, I interviewed Brian Bacon, the head of international consultancy the Oxford Leadership Academy. Bacon has a client list that includes Ford, Ericsson, Coca-Cola, BP, Horwath International, ...
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risk
by leon on October 24, 2007
Listed companies seem to have a knack of alienating investors and harming their share price by providing forecasts that are way off target, according to a global study.More than 70 per cent of compan...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 24, 2007
Looks like Conrad Black has now got religion. Facing the prospect of being thrown in the slammer for fraud and obstruction of justice, Black is turning to God. Well, it worked for Paris Hilton after ...
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litigation
by leon on October 23, 2007
Back in July, I talked about research showing that the number showing that the number of securities class actions has fallen to well below average.Now we have more evidence showing the trend is conti...
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corporate governance
by leon on October 23, 2007
Who does the company exist for? The shareholders or stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers?The answers are by no means clear if a new paper co-authored by Wharton finance professor F...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 22, 2007
Is there no end to the strange stories about Conrad Black?Unable to leave the United States, the convicted felon has taken to signing copies of his new book in Toronto.All done using digital and magn...
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Accounting
by leon on October 22, 2007
What impact does it have on CFOs when the company admits it has screwed up and makes a material weakness disclosure under Section 404? Not real flash, according to a new study.The study, The Effects ...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 21, 2007
There are some real doozies around but this one is too good to ignore.In Canada, a hedge fund manager Paul Eustace made the wrong call on US interest rates, lied to investors, lost $208-million, stol...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 20, 2007
Average losses from fraud are on the rise, according to a new report. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study, Economic crime: people, culture and controls looked at 5428 companies in 40 countries, and over...
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markets
by leon on October 19, 2007
This week I sat down for a conversation with Europe's leading futurologist and business trend spotter, Ray Hammond. The author of 14 books which have been translated into 31 languages, Hammond is...
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markets
by leon on October 18, 2007
Have just finished reading Supercapitalism by Robert Reich, former US president bill clinton's Secretary of Labor. Reich will always be known as the liberal outsider in what tried presenting itse...
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Compliance
by leon on October 18, 2007
A few years ago, carbon trading was seen as a niche business. Not any more. There is now a growing recognition that it is set to become the world's biggest commodity market. Potentially, it could...
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markets
by leon on October 17, 2007
So Bear Stearns shares are up after it was revealed that China Citic Group wants to buy a stake in the troubled US investment bank. Let's forget for a moment about the flawed business models that...
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Accounting
by leon on October 17, 2007
Internal audit teams are being stretched more than ever and they are having trouble finding the right people to fill the gaps, according to a new report.Ernst & Young's Global Internal Audit ...
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risk
by leon on October 16, 2007
The rule of thumb with risky investment is that it cuts both ways. The present new opportunities for big gains but there is also the danger of being wiped out. It applies to all sorts of financial in...
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executive pay
by leon on October 16, 2007
Loading up CEOs with options leads to riskier performance, according to new research.A study, Swinging for the fences: the effects of CEO stock options on company risk-taking and performance , found ...
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Accounting
by leon on October 15, 2007
Earlier this year, I looked at some of the problems the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has doing its job.These include, for example, the amount of time that passes between the PCAOB inspec...
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Ethics
by leon on October 15, 2007
How hard is it for companies to use their action on climate change to win over consumers? Just about impossible, if new research from The Climate Group is anything to by.Research of consumer attitude...
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Ethics
by leon on October 12, 2007
When ethics scandals hit, it tends to be the fault of certain individuals inside the organization. More often than not, they have allowed their own personal values to infect the organization.So how d...
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strategy
by leon on October 12, 2007
How can we tell whether a company will keep innovating? Check the language of the CEO, according to a new study.In their paper, Managing the Future: CEO Attention and Innovation Outcomes, the researc...
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Accounting
by leon on October 11, 2007
Earlier this month, I looked at Judge Lewis Kaplan raising important questions about the way the US Government was abusing its powers in the prosecution of alleged wrongdoers. Kaplan made internation...
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SOX
by leon on October 11, 2007
Last year I raised the question: Is Sarbanes-Oxley choking innovation?. The fundamental issue here is whether SOX is encouraging inaction over action and paralysis by analysis.Added to this debate is...
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Accounting
by leon on October 11, 2007
The good news is that over the last decade, more than 50 per cent of accounting graduates have been female. The bad news is that they are not moving into senior level position at the same rate as the...
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executive pay
by leon on October 10, 2007
Corporations are not really doing that well when it comes to explaining to investors how executives are compensated and what exactly they have to do to earn their bucks, says the Securities and Excha...
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SOX
by leon on October 10, 2007
Sarbanes-Oxley has limited impact because its penalties are relatively weak when compared to other statutes, says Lisa Nicholson, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Louisville.In her pap...
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risk
by leon on October 10, 2007
Early last year, i did a blog entry looking at the views Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Professor Yossi Sheffi. He argued that many companies struggle with risk management because it'...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 9, 2007
The pompous greed-head might be facing decades in jail, he might be barred from returning to the country of his birth, but convicted crook Conrad Black has shown he has an extraordinary ability to pok...
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risk
by leon on October 9, 2007
Do one or two of your employees have very close relationships with vendors? Do any key employees have outside business interests that might conflict with their job duties? Do any appear to dominate t...
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SOX
by leon on October 7, 2007
Will they recommend changes to Sarbanes-Oxley or not?That's the million dollar question with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announcing the make-up of the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Audit...
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shareholder activism
by leon on October 5, 2007
Interesting take from the global spin merchants at the Brunswick Group on how to deal with shareholder activists.As detailed by Alan Rappeport in CFO.com, the group has provided 10 tips for handling ...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 5, 2007
A German court has fined Siemens €201 million ($284.1 million) for dubious payments and tax violations, reports The Wall Street Journal. ."Today's decisions are important steps in clarifying...
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corporate governance
by leon on October 4, 2007
Last month, I did a blog on how Rupert Murdoch was facing a challenge from an Australian shareholder activist Stephen Mayne who had put a motion for News Corp to ditch its system of Class A and Class...
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Ethics
by leon on October 4, 2007
This week I talked to the head honchos of Dutch-based sustainability bank Triodos which invests in projects offering social and environmental value.Triodos' funds total EUR3 billion ($US4.25 bill...
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Ethics
by leon on October 3, 2007
Multinationals seem to be driving a lot of the corruption in poor Third World countries, says anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.According to its 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, w...
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Ethics
by leon on October 3, 2007
Is there a link between foreclosures, the hot housing market and fraud? Very much so, says Anthony Sanders, a professor of finance and real estate at the WP Carey School.Once the housing market cools...
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Accounting
by leon on October 3, 2007
Globalization, changes in risk management, advances in technology, talent and organizational issues, and changing internal audit roles are ranked as the big issues that will reshape internal auditing...
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litigation
by leon on October 2, 2007
Interesting comments from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, speaking at a National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers seminar. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Kaplan raises serious questions about ...
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Accounting
by leon on October 2, 2007
The prospect of US companies following a single global accounting standard seems to be moving closer with Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Robert Herz he expects the time is coming when ...
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Ethics
by leon on October 2, 2007
Drugs giant Bristol-Meyers Squibb and a former subsidiary have been hauled over the coals and forced to pay more than half a billion dollars to settle settle federal and state investigations for prom...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 2, 2007
In The past, I have talked about delinquent communities here and here. I have argued that most corporate frauds are the work of delinquent communities, where you get a whole gang of people in on the ...
