Global Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance is the hot topic of the new millennium. Goneare the days when CEOs set agendas and earned 500 times more thanaverage employees. Now, transparency rules. Corporations mustestablish new systems of accountability, and encourage long-termparticipation in decision-making by both shareholders and staff.Those that succeed will be better equipped to create wealth, solvecomplex problems, and compete in global markets. The role of the directorate and the need to ensure an effectiveframework for its accountability to owners is paramount to success.In line with this thinking, Mastering Global Corporate Governanceargues that one of the key responsibilities of the Board isleadership, and that the root of good corporate governance lies inthe strength of a corporate leader. In particular, it focuses ontwo 'burning issues' for senior executives: how can the boards ofglobal companies best lead their companies through the fundamentaldilemmas that face all boards?; and how can Boards, entrusted withultimate responsibility for the way a company exercises leadership,provide that leadership?

The subject Corporate Governance:Global Concepts and Practices has occupied centre- stage, particularly since the early 1990s in U.K., USA, rest of Europe, Canada, Japan, India and many other developing countries of the world. The present volume is essentially a comprehensive textbook, focusing on both concepts and corporate governance practices. Even before the Enron collapse and several other kingsize scandals, there has been a steadily mounting volume of complaints regarding the dismal state of governance in most large corporates across the globe, mostly relating to accounting irregularities and top dressing of financial results, almost universally perpetrated at the behest of the Company Chairman & CEO himself. Keeping the above ground realities in view, the present volume is intended to be a standard reference as well as textbook on the varied facets of corporate governance. The book has six distinct parts, containing in all as many as twenty-eight interrelated chapters.The first part deals with subjects like business environment, business ethics and social responsibilities, management of a firm, etc., while the second part is concerned with the theory of firm, its objectives, accounting standards and creative accounting practices. Part Three of the book dwells at length on the working of the company board, board committees, need for whistle blowing, corporate governance rating and need for separation of the positions of Chairman and CEO. Part Four presents summary recommendations of five Indian Committees on corporate governance in chronological order. These are (i) CII Committee (1998), (ii) Ist SEBI Committee (1999), (iii) Ganguly Committee-RBI (2002); (iv) Naresh Chandra Committee (2002) and (v) 2nd SEBI Committee (2003). Part Five contains six chapters comprising as many live cases on accounting scams. The sixth part of the book contains governance reports of three world class companies from India, viz., Infosys Technologies Ltd., Wipro, and Reliance Industries Ltd.

In this report to the OECD, the Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance presents the perspectives that it believes should guide public policies related to corporate governance, suggests areas for private sector voluntary action and recommends further actions for the OECD.

The current crisis has rocked the financial system worldwide and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime. Thousands of firms have gone bankrupt and many financial institutions were bailed out by governments. The effects of the crisis have shaken emerging and developing markets alike and have not spared neither small nor large businesses. Many scholars and practitioners attribute the roots of the crisis to failures and weaknesses in the way corporate governance has been practiced since the mid-1990s. Lax board oversight of top management, short-termism and self-interested behavior have been fingered as the culprits behind recent financial turmoil. This book highlights the recent developments and new trends in corporate governance. The eighteen chapters, written by leading academics and experts, can assist corporate executives, governance bodies, investors, market regulators, and policymakers in having a global picture of major corporate governance issues. This book highlights the recent developments and new trends in corporate governance. The eighteen chapters, written by leading academics and experts, can assist corporate executives, governance bodies, investors, market regulators, and policymakers in having a global picture of major corporate governance issues.

Effective corporate governance, or the set of controls and incentives that drive top management, originates both outside and inside the firm and assures investors who hope to commit their capital. Essential when buying stocks in one's own country, effective corporate governance is even more important abroad, where information can be less reliable and investor influence (or protection) more limited. In this collection of articles from the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, more than thirty leading scholars and practitioners discuss the possibilities and limitations of global corporate finance and governance systems, whether in Europe and North America or in the emerging markets of Israel, India, Korea, and South Africa. Essays discuss the political roots of American corporate finance; the structural and financial variations between international corporations; control premiums and the effectiveness of corporate governance systems; debt, folklore, and cross-country differences in financial structures; the driving forces behind the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997; corporate ownership and control in India, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom; financial and economic lessons of Italy's privatization program; changes in Korean corporate governance; sovereign wealth funds; and the new organization of Canadian business trusts. A special roundtable discussion addresses shareholder activism in the U.K.

These principles of corporate governance, endorsed by the OECD Council at Ministerial level in 1999, provide guidelines and standards to insure inclusion, accountability and abilit to attract capital.

For many Americans, capitalism is a dynamic engine of prosperity that rewards the bold, the daring, and the hardworking. But to many outside the United States, capitalism seems like an initiative that serves only to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few hereditary oligarchies. As A History of Corporate Governance around the World shows, neither conception is wrong. In this volume, some of the brightest minds in the field of economics present new empirical research that suggests that each side of the debate has something to offer the other. Free enterprise and well-developed financial systems are proven to produce growth in those countries that have them. But research also suggests that in some other capitalist countries, arrangements truly do concentrate corporate ownership in the hands of a few wealthy families. A History of Corporate Governance around the World provides historical studies of the patterns of corporate governance in several countries-including the large industrial economies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; larger developing economies like China and India; and alternative models like those of the Netherlands and Sweden.