The Exchange
The Exchange is where individuals involved in board activities can anonymously exchange ideas, experiences and comment on reported news items or videos from The Directors Letter.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Re: You’re on the Board at CIT (TDL, 3/2/10)
Here’s one vote for Thain. He restored integrity to the NY Stock Exchange after Grasso left. He had a solid two dozen years in banking. Did Merrill Lynch have a bad year in 2008? Yes, but what investment bank or cluster of funds didn’t? Thain has degrees from MIT and the Harvard Business School. Let’s give him a chance to take CIT out of bankruptcy and TARP.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Re: “Women on the Payroll” (TDL, 2/17/10)
The College of St. Catherine in Minnesota has published a research paper on the number of women on corporate boards and at the “C” level in corporations. When one considers that women account for 90% of the purchasing descisons, it is astounding that there are so very few women in these roles. What are corporations thinking? A great group to contact is the Womens’ Business Leaders in Healthcare. Their goal is to increase the number of executive women serving on for-profit boards , and they have the contacts to make this happen.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Re: Financial Regulators, Reader’s Note
Congress is now aggressively looking at past regulators and others to assign blame for the current financial crisis. Certainly they played a role, especially as it relates to poor oversight. But, who were the underwriters of these mortgages, who packaged them into securities, who rated the securities, and then who sold them? To really expand the club, who was stupid enough to insure them? There is plenty of blame to go around, and numerous people qualify for the all-star cast beyond just the regulators.
January 8th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Re: “Ed Notes, Looking Back” (TDL, 1/6/10)
Reference your comment in the recent Letter about AIG needing some good PR. First, I agree with you and then I saw the next day on the WSJ front page that GM’s Chair Ed Whitacre must have seen your remarks and boldly stated “My prediction is we {General Motors} will be profitable in 2010″
January 7th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Re: Blockbuster (TDL, 1/6/10)
Blockbuster’s problems began when it was sold to Viacom. Viacom stripped out all of the integrated assets (Spelling, Republic etc.) and used BB strictly as a cash cow to buy other assets such as Paramount and CBS. Viacom then saddled BB with huge debt and set it adrift on its own. Meanwhile Netflix, TiVo and others had free reign.
Blockbuster under previous management was synonymous with Entertainment no matter what the format. Viacom destroyed a great brand.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Re: Blockbuster (TDL, 1/6/10)
Anyone know a Blockbuster board member other than Sumner Redstone? Who else gets to make a move? Interesting questions about how we will access films in the future.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Re: “I Quit.” (TDL, 12/14/2009)
The comments on AIG compensation anticipated another round of departures, this time from very talented women executives who are sure they can do better elsewhere.
AIG was a terrific insurance company, pentrating into China and engaging in creatiuve innovations. Unfortunately, one division got them overextended in insuring complex financial transactions that the brightest of economists thought would hold up. It is not yet clear that we can stop, slow or moderate another surge of creativity over the next decade.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
The Take Charge Chairman. Reader’s Note.
Is Whitacre too strong for GM’s good, or is he the perfect man for the Chairman’s job but not the CEO position? These are the questions. From my standpoint, I’d say yes to the Chairmanship, no to the CEO position, and I would make Ed Whitacre a pivotal component in the CEO search and hiring decision from day one. Otherwise you’ll never get a quality candidate.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:48 am
The future of newspapers may be online, with Kindle type readers.
The question is how much to charge for newspapers, and whether for
the entire paper or only those sections one wants: Business, Sports, International?
The Wall Street Journal recently surpassed USATODAY for national circulation. But metro dailies are down as much as 50% including in Boston. Can they last five years?
October 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Comp Committees Take Note:
I would argue that regardless of whether a director is on the comp committeehe he/she is responsible for looking carefully at comp decisions not just delegating them to the comp committee and simply accepting whatever they recommend. All directors will suffer the same negative publicity if a bad comp decision hits the media.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Should Boards get involved in product name changes? Recall the great flap over Classic Coke some years back. Board members need to be apprised of major shifts in marketing strategies and that may include brand names.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I agree completely with the previous comment. It is difficult to imagine a situation where multiple charges and settlements took place and senior management was not aware of it. This had to involve the General Counsel who should have informed the CEO, who in turn should have informed the board. If this sequence did not take place, heads should roll. Also, the board definitely has some responsibility in this because ethics start at the top and work down.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Pfizer. It is hard to believe that the Pfizer board was in the dark. Generic (statin) drugs have eroded the market share for Lipitor and the Pfizer worker base and profits have declined. Pfizer has engaged in a very aggressive magazine and publicity campaign, paid articles and other tactics to regain market share. But at what point does the public and Congress get very upset with repeated violations and big fines?