While it is important that a board have some directors who are independent and others who are financially literate, having a board that works - and works well -- requires a mix of directors with significant expertise and experience and the right dynamics. This author, the head of a firm that recruits directors, explains what makes a board work well. Absolutes, like having independent directors, are important, but what makes a board work really well is a mix of directors with expertise, experience and the right dynamics.
When Enron was still - and only - a pipeline company, it lost a major contract in India because local authorities felt that it was pushing negotiations too fast. In fact, the loss of the contract underlines the important role that cultural differences play in international negotiation. For one country's negotiators, time is money; for another's, the slower the negotiations, the better and more trust in the other side. This author's advice will help negotiators bridge the cultural differences in international negotiation. When it comes to negotiating with businesspeople around the world, knowing your opposite's culture is as important as understanding his or her goals.
The rich are different than you and me, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote. That truism can be applied to the differences between employees and executives today, and perhaps nowhere is the gap more conspicuous than in the benefits and perks executives receive while they're working for a company -- and continue to receive once they retire. Moreover, most companies hide these perks. The time has come, writes this author, to open up and disclose.
This case describes how the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church handled allegations of clergy sexual abuse during the 1990s. In 2002, the archdiocese was confronted by public revelations of how the allegations were handled. Professional organizations first and foremost must protect the interests of those whom the profession serves. Professional organizations, however, also protect and further the interests of their members. The case also describes the Boston archdiocese's initial response to the storm of public criticism that followed the revelations.
In 2002, the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was confronted by public revelations of how allegations of clergy sexual abuse were handled by the archdiocese during the 1990s. This case describes how the Boston archdiocese addressed the issue over the next two years. It also describes the reverberations of the scandal nationwide, theories on the root causes of the problem, and emerging sentiment in church hierarchy and the laity. Professional organizations first and foremost must protect the interests of those whom the profession serves. Professional organizations, however, also protect and further the interests of their members.
Employees, officers, and directors of Texas Gulf Sulphur acquired or tipped off others to acquire common stock or options before and concurrent with the announcement of a major discovery of ore. The question is whether any of these acquisitions violated either federal securities law, state fiduciary law, or ethical standards.
Examines Mondavi Winery's struggle to communicate its value proposition to the market following an apparently successful IPO. The Mondavi Winery had a strong reputation for innovation in the wine industry and had undertaken an IPO to secure the funding needed to continue to build on this tradition. Although the IPO was an initial success, the stock price soon began to fall. Places students in the role of the company founder, Robert Mondavi, as he considers how to communicate the vision of his family's company to investors. Beyond the primary issue of developing a communication strategy, this case allows students to consider the demands for communication created by an IPO and the impact on the management of the company.
This case explores how the public reputation of a profession evolves as its membership changes. The public reputation of a professional relies on its association's credibility for ensuring, through rigorous certification and self-regulation, that its members place client interests foremost. It demonstrates that if associations deviate from this objective and focus instead on the well-being of their members, the public goodwill of the profession suffers.
This case discusses why society grants professional associations the rights of certification and self-regulation. In exercising these rights, professional associations serve client interests but also the interest of member practitioners. The case discusses how associations that place practitioner interest over client interest risk the separation of their profession. It concludes with a discussion of the relationship between professional associations and professional service firms.
Taking a hard line may be fine -- but only in the short term, and only if you really believe that your counterpart is you're adversary. But negotiation is often a series of episodes, which means that considering your counterpart as a partner or a collaborator is the foundation of trusting and fruitful-- and ongoing -- negotiation. How the game is played matters more than who wins.
Negotiation has come a long way. A once purely adversarial, one-time event has evolved into a relationship-based, ongoing process that puts a premium on empathy and co-operation. This author, an expert educator who has played a critical role in improving negotiators' skills and the results they achieve, discusses the substantial changes that have occurred in how negotiations are conducted today.
Just as negotiating has become an ongoing process, so too has learning new negotiating techniques. Improving your negotiation skills, write the co-authors of this article, is a long journey that involves constant reflection, awareness, and openness to feedback. In the article, a valuable and extremely useful primer for negotiators, they describe and outline the preparation, value-claiming and value-creating strategies that are the foundation of any successful negotiation.
The right strategy and preparation are important elements in successful negotiation, but unless we use the right verbal and nonverbal communication we may never get what we want. Knowing the rules that that can set the tone or code of a negotiation, and how we can successfully switch that code, is vitally important. Without that knowledge, this author points out, we may never get what we want.
In 1997, the U.S. Treasury was deciding whether to proceed with a proposal to issue inflation-indexed bonds. This case explores the challenges facing innovation in the financial markets as the Treasury tries to determine whether to introduce Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is responsible for the country's monetary policy, and its decisions are intended to support the country's overall strategy for sustainable economic growth with price stability. MAS has been very successful in managing exchange rates using a managed float system, which allows more flexibility than a fixed exchange rate but less volatility than freely floating exchange rates. Following the Asian financial crisis, Dr. Khor Hoe Ee and his colleagues must decide whether to continue to manage exchange rates through the managed float or whether alternative monetary policies would be more effective in supporting Singapore's economic goals.
Maxxium (A) covers the creation and growth of the wine and spirits distribution joint venture formed in 1999 by three different producers: Highland Distillers of Scotland, Jim Beam Brands of the USA, and Remy Cointreau of France. It highlights tools and principles that the top management team developed to guide its relationship with its shareholders, as well as with 3rd party brands that use their distribution network.
In the early 2000's, MOL, the newly privatized Hungarian Oil and Gas Concern considers acquiring a controlling stake in TVK, a downstream customer specialized in the production of polymers. The case highlights the tension between long-term competitive/growth strategy and short-term operational issues and cash considerations, in the context of this particular decision. It also provides the opportunity to explore the broader strategic challenges that this company faces, if it wants to stay alive in the consolidating Central European Oil market. This market is particularly interesting and unique after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It faces deregulation, privatization and major consolidation, as the region's economies move into market economies. MOL, in particular, is a very interesting company, which, despite being a small player could successfully challenge Royal Dutch SHELL, Austria's OMV and large Russian oil companies with its bold acquisitions, thus creating one of the first and largest multinational companies of the region.