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Governance attachée

Insider: Judy Cotte
 April 15th, 2013

Who Vice-president policy and governance, RBC Global Asset Management; country correspondent to the International Corporate Governance Network. Involvement Following a decade of shareholder activism in the 1980s, the U.S.-based Council of Institutional Investors in 1993 began canvassing European pension funds … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Slider, Insider

Dominic Barton: On fast bucks and real value

In The Director’s Chair with David W. Anderson: Dominic Barton, global managing director of McKinsey & Co., sounds the alarm for Western business leaders, markets and investors: lose the short-term bias or lose the race
 April 15th, 2013

Dominic Barton grew up on Canada’s west coast and, a couple of decades later, made his way to the top job at global consulting giant McKinsey & Co. via postings in Seoul and then Shanghai. So it’s no surprise to … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Slider, The Director's Chair | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Directors wanted: operational experience required

It’s a common lament at many boards: we can’t find new directors with CEO-level operational experience. It’s also mostly hogwash. A much bigger problem: tired, safe, word-of-mouth recruiting practices
By Robert Thompson
 April 15th, 2013

It isn’t a lack of talent, but a myopic viewpoint that limits Canadian boards when it comes to adding new directors. That’s the take of corporate governance expert Beverly Behan. Her remarks come at a time when yet another report, … Continue reading →

Posted in Handbook | Tagged , , , , , ,

Loonie’s letdown for real

Don’t let the last of the Canadian-dollar bulls dissuade you—the loonie’s value is falling and it’s not finished yet. But don’t worry. A lighter dollar doesn’t necessarily mean a lighter order book
By Ian McGugan
 April 14th, 2013

The beaver is cute and the maple leaf packs a certain whole-earth appeal but, when it comes to national symbols, it’s the loonie that provides the highest-profile gauge of how our national economy is faring. Over the past decade the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, Handbook | Tagged , ,

Every symbol tells a story

Fending off giants, blazing new trails, spotting hot trends—companies don’t get to be the best TSX Venture Exchange performers unless they’re willing to put everything on the line
By Celia Milne
 April 14th, 2013

What makes junior ventures successful? Holding steady toward strategic, long-term goals was a key feature for this year’s crop of TSX Venture 50 companies. Selected from a pool of nearly 400 eligible Venture-listed companies, the 2013 Venture 50 is made … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Slider, Features, Top Stories | Tagged , , , , , ,

Director PROTIP: action beats reaction

Shareholder activism is on the rise. No surprise there. What is news is that, in scrambling proactively to address anything that might make them activist targets, boards are starting to change how they’re built and how they operate
By Mark Anderson
 April 14th, 2013

For the past 10 months, Calgary-based fertilizer giant Agrium Inc. (TSX:AGU) has been the focus of a very public proxy war with New York hedge fund Jana Partners, which had sought to replace five of Agrium’s 13 board members with … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Slider, Features, Top Stories | Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Canada’s boards, by the numbers

We hear a lot about key governance indicators such as independence, diversity and director compensation. But how do Canada’s boards shape up today on these important factors? Vital extracts from an exclusive survey of nearly 300 listed companies
 April 14th, 2013

Twenty years can go by in a blink. And sometimes, it can seem like a century. In the two decades that title partner Korn/Ferry International and Patrick O’Callaghan and Associates have been publishing Corporate Board Governance and Director Compensation, taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Features, Top Stories

Fear not

Securities laws back whistleblower programs, some even with rewards. Yet a lot of company leaders still think of whistleblowers as “rats.” The longer those executives and directors take to buy in, the more they put themselves, their employees and shareholders at risk
By Paul McLaughlin
 April 14th, 2013

In late 2011 someone blew the whistle at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the Montreal-based engineering giant, and what a loud and piercing sound it made. Senior executives and board members received an anonymous tip that serious criminal activities had taken place … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Slider, Features, Top Stories | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The long arm of the lawsuit

Canadian companies with foreign subsidiaries are traditionally immune from liability for those subsidiaries’ actions abroad. Klippensteins, a Toronto public interest law firm, is trying to change that—with HudBay Minerals first in its sights
By Jim Middlemiss
 April 13th, 2013

Watch out corporate Canada, Klippensteins is gunning for you. The five-person public interest law firm has made its name defending human rights, particularly among indigenous peoples. Its high-profile cases include representing the family of slain native activist Dudley George, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Ticker, Top Stories | Tagged , , , , , ,

Disclosure 101: care and feeding of analysts

By Bruce Freedman/Street Smarts
 April 13th, 2013

I’ve always been confused by insider trading rules pertaining to the disclosure of non- public information. Not that I was confused by the intent when I was an analyst; that made perfect sense to me. Rather, I was concerned about … Continue reading →

Posted in Ticker | Tagged , , ,

Going forward, going private

What does the recent spate of go-private deals say about the limits of today’s public markets and the means of private capital?
By Robert Olsen
 April 12th, 2013

The first quarter of 2013 saw a dramatic increase in the volume of deals in which public companies were bought and taken private. At the time of writing, total global go-private deal value was more than US$50 billion—at least twice … Continue reading →

Posted in Views | Tagged , , , , ,

We all have needs

Nothing improves a company more than good board-management relations. To get there, both parties need to understand the others’ expectations—and strive to meet them
By Richard Leblanc
 April 12th, 2013

I recently trained a group of directors and CEOs from the banking and agricultural sectors in Texas and Arizona. We discussed mutual expectations on the part of the board and management. The following represents the output of these discussions. While … Continue reading →

Posted in Views | Tagged , ,

Getting from A to pay

Setting annual CEO and C-suite compensation is supposed to be a rigorous process. But active dialogue between boards, management and pay consultants, combined with careful planning, can help it run smoothly
By Ken Hugessen
 April 12th, 2013

For compensation committees and senior management involved in executive compensation decision-making, the first quarter of the year can be a stressful time. Most issuers are determining bonuses for the year just ended as well as long-term incentive grants (e.g. stock … Continue reading →

Posted in Views | Tagged , , , , ,

An eye on operations

Boards don’t run company operations, but robust board oversight of operational risk can help boost bottom-line performance and detect small problems before they become big ones
By John Caldwell
 April 12th, 2013

Operational risks are generally associated with the day-to-day running of the business and vary significantly depending upon industry sector. Clearly, operational risks for a manufacturing company will not be the same as for businesses in financial services or the extraction … Continue reading →

Posted in Views | Tagged , , ,

Still quiet on the IPO front

A pop in late-2012 momentum helped stoke market confidence for 2013. But action has yet to materialize
By Joel Kranc
 April 12th, 2013

Market volatility, overseas debt crises and instability in North American markets have, in part, had negative effects on the Canadian initial public offering market over the past three years. In 2010, 73 IPOs were issued on all exchanges raising $5.5 … Continue reading →

Posted in Ticker | Tagged , , , , , , ,
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