Catégorie : Composition des Conseils

Un rapide aperçu de certains codes de gouvernance asiatiques


Vous trouverez, ci-joint, un article publié par le « Board Director Training Institute of Japan » (BDTI), une organisation japonaise dont la mission est d’accroître la confiance entre les corporations et le public. L’objectif poursuivi par le BDTI est de favoriser le développement éthique des entreprises et de l’économie japonaise par la diffusion d’études sur la gouvernance et la mise en place de programmes de formation en gouvernance. L’article brosse un tableau sommaire des tendances en matière de gouvernance dans certains pays asiatiques.

A Look at Hong Kong’s Corporate Governance Code, Regarding « Director Training »

Since Singapore has just set forth amendments to its Corporate Governance Code that are impressively well-refined and substantial, we thought we would look at some other « Corporate Governance Codes » (CG Codes) in Asia from the « board training » perspective.

Les C.A. doivent croire en la valeur ajoutée de la DIVERSITÉ !


Le point de vue de , fondatrice du Canadian Board Diversity Council, dans le Financial Post, sur les effets positifs de la diversité. Il y a encore beaucoup de chemin à faire pour que le message passe clairement aux Boards des grandes sociétés cotées en bourse… mais plusieurs commencent à comprendre que la diversité est une importante valeur ajoutée dans l’efficacité des Boards.

Changing the face of boards

Why in 2012, is the federal government trying to nudge corporate Canada into changing the makeup of its boardrooms to include more women?

The answer is simple: Inclusivity is good for business. Yet, while Canada enjoys an incredibly diverse, multicultural talent pool of men and women, nominating committees continue to seek out the usual candidates: Caucasian men. But the cost to opportunity of maintaining the status quo instead of seeking out the best and brightest in a much larger talent pool is too great. Recognizing this, the federal government’s Economic Action Plan 2012 created an advisory council of leaders from the private and public sectors to promote the participation of women on corporate boards.

Research shows that everybody wins when there are more perspectives around the table. The government understands this. Business has been slow to come…

Les Boards sont-ils prêts à accueillir la génération du « millénaire » ?


Voilà un article très pertinent écrit par Catherine Dunn, dans Law.com, qui aborde l’accueil de la génération du millénaire par les organisations, du point de vue des conseils d’administration.

The Millennials Are Coming, and Boards Need to Get Ready

The Millennials are coming to the corporate workforce, in droves. Is your board of directors prepared?

The members of the generation born roughly between the late 1970s and the early 2000s comprise the fastest-growing segment of the labor market. As such, their increasing presence at the office raises all kinds of policy issues for companies—beyond laments over how to tolerate the quirks of the “ME generation”—that range from topics like talent management and compensation to social media.

L’importance pour le Board de bien comprendre les implications des médias sociaux


Excellent article écrit par Holly J. Gregory, partner Weil, Gotshal & Mages, dans Practicallaw.com

SOCIAL MEDIA : What Boards Need to Know

Voici un extrait des pricipaux points saillants. Vous devez lire cet article pour avoir plusieurs bonnes suggestions concernant cette problématiques.

Importance for boards to understand the implications of social media

« Boards need to be proactive in learning about social media from a strategic and risk management perspective, so that they can provide effective guidance and risk oversight. They should understand the company’s social media policies and internal controls, as well as the processes that management uses to monitor and manage social media risks. Boards should also understand the value of social media as a source of information, and should determine with management how best to mine and aggregate that information.

The following sets outs steps the board should take, including important questions the board should ask, to understand and effectively oversee the company’s use of, and policies on, social media:

Discuss corporate strategy

The board should periodically discuss with management its strategic approach to social media. Questions the board should ask include:zzHow does social media relate to corporate strategy?

Ensure adequate risk management

The board (or an appropriate committee) should also periodically discuss with management the risks associated with social media and ensure that the company is adequately managing those risks. Issues the board should focus on include:zzHow does the company monitor and mine social media from a risk perspective?

Identify relevant personnel

The board should know who in the company is responsible for social media efforts. The board should ask:zzHow is responsibility for social media organized in the company?

Review social media policies and internal controls.

The board (or an appropriate committee) should review company policies and internal controls related to social media from time to time. The board should make sure that the company has strict, straightforward and well-understood policies about who communicates for the company and in what circumstances. These policies should specifically address social media. Any company information that is posted online should first be approved by people who are knowledgeable about disclosure requirements under federal securities laws (such as Regulation FD, proxy solicitation rules, antifraud laws and prospectus requirements), advertising laws and other applicable laws. Key questions the board should consider include:What are the company’s social media policies?

Evaluate shareholder relations programs.

The board should review shareholder relations and communications programs to evaluate whether the company is well-positioned to elicit information from key shareholders. The company should be able to determine what key shareholders care about so that the board and management can respond to legitimate concerns. In addition to trolling social media websites for information, the company should engage in regular outreach with significant shareholders. This can be done through the use of online surveys, shareholder hotlines, dedicated communication websites and targeted meetings with specific shareholders or groups of shareholders.

Assess investor communications policy.

The board should verify that the company’s investor communications policy is up-to-date and well-understood by directors, senior management and investor relations personnel. Boards should ask:zzAre messages coordinated?

Emphasize employee compliance.

The board’s attention to a culture of compliance at the company, beginning with the « tone at the top, » emphasizes the need for employees to act with integrity. The board should make sure that there are protected channels for employees to voice concerns. This will help discourage employees from making negative comments about the company through social media. Also, the board should recognize that rogue employees who act out online are often symptomatic of a broader morale problem within the company.

Confirm auditor review.

The board’s audit committee should ask the company’s internal audit department whether auditors are reviewing compliance with social media and communications policies.

Stay up-to-date.

Directors should follow relevant blogs and other social media related to the company, but with a strict understanding that they should « listen » only (just as they are advised not to engage with shareholders directly unless asked to do so on an agreed topic and message). This is not only important to ensure that communications and engagement are coordinated around a clear message, but also to avoid legal problems, such as the selective disclosure of material non-public information. Directors should ask management (including the corporate secretary and the corporate communications professionals) what they read and follow to stay up-to-date on influential views about the company and key governance issues ».

The Power of Millennial Zuckerberg : Good governance !


Food for Thought ! 

How being a Millennial has shaped how Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook.

Voici 2 articles vraiment intéressants, le premier de Forbes et le deuxième de Fox Business.

Mark Zuckerberg Speaks at Harvard (Facebook)

Can The Millennial Zuckerberg Be A Great Leader?

Voir aussi :

At Facebook, Zuckerberg Poised for Corporate Governance Crash Course

2012 : L’année de la rémunération en fonction de la performance (P4P)


Voici un document du Conference Board publié dans LinkedIn par Richard Leblanc récemment. Super intéressant; à lire.

The year of Pay for Performance – Proxy season 2012

Le Forum sociétés d’État de Québec accueille 137 administrateurs et administratrices


19 avril 2012 -Le Cercle des ASC a organisé, conjointement avec le Collège des administrateurs de sociétés, le Forum sociétés d’État 2012 de Québec, en collaboration avec l’Institut des administrateurs de sociétés (IAS) section Québec.

Le Forum sociétés d’État de Québec accueille 137 administrateurs et administratrices

L’événement a eu lieu le 17 avril 2012, à l’Hôtel Château Laurier, à Québec, et était constitué d’un panel formé de quatre conférenciers et d’un animateur, puis d’une conférence de M. Raymond Bachand, ministre des Finances et ministre du Revenu du Québec.
137 administrateurs et administratrice ont participé à l’événement qui fut un réel succès.

La rémunération des hauts dirigeants : un sujet complexe pour la plupart des Boards !


Excellent article, publié par Robin A. Ferracone et paru dans Forbes, qui répond à deux questions clés sur l’ampleur des connaissances en rémunération des membres du comité de RH.

L’auteure donne son opinion sur :

(1) l’importance d’avoir un expert en rémunération comme membre du comité des RH et

(2) la façon de procéder à la rotation des membres du comité.

La rémunération des hauts dirigeants : un sujet complexe pour la plupart des Boards !

« As a business person who currently serves on boards and chairs a compensation committee, and as an executive compensation consultant who has served a myriad of compensation committees over the years, I have not surprisingly formed some opinions on these two topics.

I am always amazed when boards treat compensation, like human resources (HR) in general, as an area that should be intuitively obvious.  However, just like audit committee members are most effective when they are financially literate, compensation committee members are most effective when they have a certain amount of compensation literacy and expertise.  It helps when people on the compensation committee have a generally familiarity with both the strategic and technical aspects of compensation.  It helps when compensation committee members have a feel for the issues based on real experience with the subject matter, not just as a line executive or onlooker.

… To sum up, my experience is that compensation committees function best when the people sitting on these committees, and certainly the chair of these committees, have some expertise that is directly relevant, either through background or experience, and that rotating people on and off the committee in measured doses can bring new thinking to the table without the downside effect of wholesale disruption… »

Dix propositions cruciales pour renforcer la gouvernance


Voici un excellent résumé de 10 recommandations du Groupe des 30 qui visent à améliorer la gouvernance des sociétés à l’échelle mondiale. L’article a été publié dans le Financial News du 15 avril 2012 et partagé par Richard Leblanc dans son groupe Boards & Advisors. À lire absolument.

A report by the Group of 30 economic think tank has again turned the spotlight on corporate governance at financial institutions since the financial crisis. Financial News looks at 10 ways in which the industry needs to improve oversight at board level.

Emphasising the link between strong corporate governance and the economic stability both of individual firms and the wider global economy, the Group of 30, a non-profit body which researches international economic issues, laid out key measures that financial institutions should consider when crafting corporate governance policies.

The G30’s members include a mix of international economic leaders, including former President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and economist Paul Volker, former chairman of the US federal reserve. The report, published on Thursday, was put together by a working group that included Jacob Frenkel, chairman of JP Morgan Chase International, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, and William McDonough, former vice-chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 

Financial News has distilled the 96-page report into 10 factors most important to strong governance at financial institutions.

Être nommé à un conseil d’administration : compétences ou contacts ?


Être nommé à un conseil d’administration : une question de compétences ou de contacts ?

Deux ASC témoignent
 
   

Être nommé à un conseil d’administration : compétences ou contacts ?

La définition d’un « bon » conseil d’administration !


Article très intéressant qui a fait pas mal de vagues dans les médias sociaux.

Reuters

The one definition of a good board

Rather predictably, after the death of Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s board of directors has come under fire for being pliant toadies: yes-men and women.

The board is rather unconventional by current standards. Just seven members, many hand-picked by Jobs, and by most accounts, subservient to him and his personal quirks and needs (particularly regarding his health in recent years). The other notable feature has been the optical and functional irrelevance of the chairperson. This was Steve Jobs’s board — full stop.

Gouvernance 101: la séparation des rôles de PDG et de Président du conseil


Un autre billet intéressant de Richard Joly dans LesAffaires.com. À lire.

Gouvernance 101: la séparation des rôles de PDG et de Président du conseil

« Une règle fondamentale de gouvernance d’entreprise est la séparation des rôles entre celui de président du conseil et celui de chef de la direction. En 1993, le Rapport Dey avait démontré la corrélation positive entre la performance d’une entreprise et le nombre élevé d’administrateurs indépendants. Puis, en 2001, le Rapport Saucier avait renforcé cette notion, insistant sur la ligne de démarcation entre les responsabilités du conseil et celles de la direction.

Aujourd’hui, plus de 84 % des 300 plus grandes sociétés canadiennes cotées en bourse adhèrent à cette structure. L’objectif est d’équilibrer le pouvoir entre le conseil d’administration et la direction. Suite à de nombreux scandales, les Américains, qui ont toujours refusé d’adopter une telle structure de gouvernance, reconnaissent maintenant le bien-fondé de cette pratique. On compte aujourd’hui près de 50 % des grandes sociétés cotées en bourse au NYSE qui ont adopté cette structure ».

Sheila Fraser, ex-auditeure générale du Canada se joint au Board de Bombardier


Excellent article de Sean Silcoff dans le Globe and Mail du 30 mars 2012. L’ex-auditeure générale du Canada, Sheila Fraser, est pressentie pour joindre le Board de Bombardier. Mme Fraser, qui possède une réputation irréprochable, viendra certainement ajouter une note d’intégrité à une entreprise qui en avait bien besoin.

Bombardier Inc. used to have one of the worst governance reputations in Corporate Canada. Now, it’s about to hold a very different distinction, as the only Canadian company with not one, but two former federal auditors-general on its board of directors.

 

In six weeks, Sheila Fraser, who retired as Auditor-General of Canada after 10 years last May, is expected to join the board of the transportation giant at its annual meeting, taking a seat near her friend and predecessor as Canada’s top federal watchdog, Denis Desautels. It will be her second corporate board, after she became a director last November of Manulife Financial Corp.

Dans une entrevue, Mme Fraser dit qu’elle entend jouer son rôle d’administratrice indépendante sans complaisance : “I’d like to think I can ask questions and be direct. If I have something I want to know, I’ll ask about it, and will work hard to understand the issues.”

Pourquoi les Boards n’ont pas le contrôle sur les décisions du Management ?


Cet article scientifique, publié dans Social Science Research Network, pose une question cruciale sur les fondements de la gouvernance. On explique pourquoi les Boards n’ont pas « l’autorité » requise pour exercer une influence significative sur les orientations stratégiques des organisations. L’article expose aussi les processus dont les Boards doivent se doter afin de mieux jouer leur rôle de supervision et de contrôle de la direction.

Les auteurs n’y vont pas « avec le dos de la cuillère », comme vous le constaterez. Je vous réfère au groupe de discussion LinkedIn – Boards & Advisors pour analyser la teneur des contributions des membres sur ce sujet ! Vous trouverez, ci-dessous, un « abstract » de l’article.

Questioning Authority: Why Boards Do Not Control Managers and How a Better Board Process Can Help

Fewer than half of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) believe their boards of directors understand the strategic factors that determine their corporation’s success; in fact, some long term directors “confess that they don’t really understand how their companies make money.” Yet corporate law expects that boards of directors will stop managers from behaving badly. It assumes that the ultimate governing authority within corporations rests with their boards, and not with the managers who run them. Broadly accepted theories of corporate governance are based on the faulty assumption that boards have actual authority over managers. This Article directly challenges that assumption and argues that managers, not boards, control corporate decision-making processes. The problem is that scholars and policymakers have ignored the connection between decision-making processes and authority. This Article is the first to examine this largely unexplored relationship, which is essential to helping boards live up to their normative mandates.

Without an effective decision-making process, regulators will continue to expect boards to perform tasks that exceed their capabilities. Even more concerning, conventional structural reforms, such as increased director independence, actually have dangerous consequences. These reforms lessen boards’ actual authority by reducing their ability to utilize effective decision-making processes. Boards must take active steps to improve the quality of their decision making. Unless they do so, they will continue to fail because they lack to the power to perform as law and theory expect. This Article argues that effective decision-making processes, which can be found in organizational behavior theory, are the key means by which the board can exercise actual authority. Analyzing the components of such a process, and identifying which components are truly controlled by boards as opposed to managers, provides a roadmap for what boards need in order to have both de facto and de jure authority in their corporations. This Article provides that original analysis and applies insights into group decision making from organizational behavior theory to identify the attributes of an effective decision-making process that are essential to securing a board’s de facto authority.

Importantes lacunes en matière de planification de la relève et de diversité : une étude du NACD


Le National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) a récemment rendu publique son étude annuelle sur la gouvernance des entreprises privées aux É-U. Les résultats de cette étude (survey) indique les principales tendances  relatives aux pratiques des C.A. et montre l’évolution des processus de gouvernance dans les plus grandes entreprises américaines. Bien que l’étude s’adresse essentiellement aux spécialistes en gouvernance aux États-Unis, celle-ci peut néanmoins se révéler être d’une grande importance pour les sociétés canadiennes; les résultats sont, selon moi, tout aussi applicables à ces dernières. Vous serez étonnés de constater le peu d’attention apportée à la planification de la relève des hauts dirigeants ainsi qu’à la diversité. Le NACD insiste donc sur la nécessité d’un redressement de la situation dans ces deux domaines. À lire.

Importantes lacunes en matière de planification de la relève et de diversité : une étude du NACD

NACD’s Public Company Governance Survey highlights the need for more effective succession planning, as only 23 percent of private company boards report that they have formal succession plans in place, 25 percent of private companies have no succession plans at all, and 52 percent have only an informal succession plan. Notable statistics included in this year’s report underscore the need for ongoing director education; 90 percent of respondents believe such programs enhance the board’s effectiveness.

Perhaps most startling findings were new statistics on boardroom diversity, which highlight a significant deficiency of minority and female directors. Only one-third of private boards currently have at least one female director, with only 17 percent having three or more. With regard to minority directors, only 20 percent have at least one minority director serving in the boardroom, and 63 percent report having none at all.

Liste de 3 500 femmes prêtes à siéger sur des C.A. européens


The European Business Schools/Women on Board initiative has published a first  list of more than 3500 board-ready women to bring Europe into the 21st  Century and support European Commission Vice President Reding’s initiative to shatter  the glass ceiling for women in Europe’s publicly listed corporation’s board  rooms.

The European Business Schools Women on Board Initiative

The list includes individual profiles of 150  senior executive women who are publicly supporting Commissioner Reding’s  initiative as well as European Business Schools who have culled their alumnae,  faculty, and Board members to identify more than 3500 “board ready” women.

The group has also published five sets of  criteria for board membership.  These  criteria were used as guidelines for the selection of the individual women and  by the business schools for their selection of board ready women (see below).

The group includes Business Schools such as  IESE (ES), EDHEC (F), INSEAD (F), Cambridge Judge Business School (UK), IMD  (CH) , RSM (NL), Boston University Leadership Institute(BE),  ESMT (D) and the business school association  EFMD (European Foundation of Management Development) as well as professional organizations  such as the GTWN (Global Telecom Women’s Network), WiTT (Women in Telecoms and  Technology), WoB  (Women on Boards), the  FT Non-Executive Director’s Club, EPWN (European Professsional Women’s Network),  IFA (Institut Francais des Administrateurs),  TIAW (The International Alliance for Women).

By publishing this first list, the group believes  it will do away with oft-cited remarks such as “there are not any qualified  women” and “where can board ready women be found”.  It also believes that such a list will help  increase not only the gender diversity but also the international diversity of  companies since many corporations may wish to avail themselves of the talent of  senior executive women from other countries than where they are based.

L’avenir des quotas en Europe : le débat se poursuit


Excellent article sur l’avenir des quotas en Europe. Voici un long extrait de ce document:

Norway’s businesswomen and the boardroom bias debate

As the EU begins a three-month consultation on whether there should be quotas for women in the boardroom, Harriet Alexander asks whether Norway’s quotas could work in Britain.

Mrs Berdal said she was broadly supportive of the quota system, as a necessary   step – even though she disliked the principle of interference in boards. She   also denied that it had adversely affected the profitability of Norwegian   companies.

« If women are just there as ‘tokens’, then the nomination committee is   doing a really bad job. I don’t know any woman who is there just to make up   the numbers; they are all highly qualified and professional, » she said.

« There was obviously resistance at the beginning, but now that it has been   there for a few years it has weakened.

« My general experience is that it is working fine, and that boards are not   weakened by the system: on the contrary, in fact.

But other business experts have expressed scepticism that the EU could impose  uniform restrictions on such diverse national working cultures.

Kenneth Ahern, a professor of finance from the University of Michigan, doubted   whether Britain was ready to make the necessary financial sacrifice to push  women onto boards. His own research on Norway, published last year, showed   that « the quota led to younger and less experienced boards, and   deterioration in operating performance, consistent with less capable boards. »

He told The Sunday Telegraph: « In Norway, they knew that the value   of their companies would drop, but society there cared more about equality   than finance. It was a conscious decision.

« For the EU to make such an important moral choice, across such a variety   of countries, is a very big ask indeed. I could see there being real   resistance to obligatory quotas from countries such as Germany and the UK,   which prize the financial output extremely highly. »

Mrs Berdal, who was a widely-travelled international lawyer before dedicating   herself full time to board work, agreed that it could be hard to impose   quotas in Britain.

« I think the British culture – both in society in general, and in   business – is a bit more conservative, and still a bit more male dominated   than in Scandinavia.

« In the boardroom, if you have only men, they tend to know each other   from school, university or the golf club, and decisions are often made   outside of the boardroom so you don’t have full control and transparency.   Maybe in the UK you’ll have to twist some more arms. »

Où sont les femmes dans la direction des organisations?


Voici les résultats d’une étude réalisée par la Chaire Claire-Bonenfant – Femmes, Savoirs et Sociétés de l’Université Laval, sous la direction de la professeure Hélène Lee-Gosselin : Où sont les femmes dans la direction des organisations?

Pour les femmes qui souhaitent accéder à des postes de haute direction, la compétence et la performance, voire la volonté et l’ambition, ne suffisent pas toujours pour être reconnues et promues. Certains éléments du contexte organisationnel, tels que la sensibilité de l’organisation à la réalité des femmes, l’existence d’un lien entre l’employée et un membre du réseau des personnes influentes dans l’organisation, l’encouragement et le soutien offerts tout au long du cheminement professionnel ou l’émergence d’opportunités liées à une restructuration, à des projets spéciaux ou à de nouvelles activités, s’avèrent souvent déterminants. L’ascension professionnelle est donc bien souvent le résultat d’une combinaison de facteurs individuels et organisationnels auxquels s’ajoute la présence de circonstances favorables.

La formation en gouvernance s’internationalise : l’exemple de Singapour


Voici un article intéressant paru dans Channelnewsasia.com qui montre les besoins de formation en gouvernance des hauts dirigeants de Singapour et les efforts entrepris afin d’explorer les formations à l’internationnal, notamment en Europe.

La formation en gouvernance s’internationalise : l’exemple de Singapour

« Going back to school after climbing the corporate ladder – that’s what some top corporate executives are doing to keep up with rapid changes in the business world especially on corporate governance issues. Besides partnering SMU to conduct a certificate and diploma programme in company directorship, the Singapore Institute of Directors is also exploring the possibility of working with a leading a leading international institution to run an annual senior director and chairman programme for experienced senior directors.

With recent changes in Singapore’s corporate governance landscape, experts said there is a need for directors to upgrade their knowledge.

Irving Low, Partner and Risk Consulting Head at KPMG Singapore, said: « If you talk to the old boys from 10, 15 years ago, (you would realise that) how they manage risk and govern companies these days is very different. The old guards would say the world has changed completely. »

La place des femmes sur les C.A. d’entreprises canadiennes


Voici un article publié dans le Globe and Mail par Leah Eichler qui décrit les résultats d’une recherche effectuée par Catalyst Inc., une organisation qui défend la position des femmes sur les conseils d’administration au Canada.  L’étude fait le point sur la situation des femmes sur les C.A. de grandes corporations canadiennes et l’auteur suggère des cibles à atteindre à cet égard.

Kimberly Kerr started Edmonton-based Sit at the Table to help promote gender balance in Canadian boardrooms. - Kimberly Kerr started Edmonton-based Sit at the Table to help promote gender balance in Canadian boardrooms. | Ian Jackson For The Globe and Mail

It found that in 2011, the portion of women on the boards of Canada’s 500 largest companies (public, private and Crown corporations) was a mere 14.5 per cent – an increase of only half a percentage point since 2009. In both years, about 40 per cent of companies had all-male boards. Catalyst, which issued its report on International Women’s Day, wants corporate Canada to fill 25 per cent of the board seats with women by 2017.