Corporate governance

I have a colleague who cares passionately about the environment. She worries about global warming, supports policy to reduce carbon emissions, and is militant about keeping the heat down and maintaining the proper tire pressure in her car. Yet her car is an SUV that gets shameful (her words) gas mileage. She lives in a […]

Managers should make environmental investments for the same reason they make other investments: because they expect them to deliver positive returns or to reduce risks.

Are you ready to have an honest conversation with your customers?

Research over 35 years shows only a weak link between socially responsible corporate behavior and good financial performance. However, there's no evidence...

When the US pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, approved the compensation of the top executives at seven troubled financial institutions, he insisted that they all appoint an independent director as the board chair rather than the CEO. Several major investors — the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which manages $400 billion in assets, among them — […]

Leadership transitions go awry with alarming frequency, often the result of an emotionally charged power struggle between the CEO and his would-be heir. Four practices, however, can help successors defuse the crisis—and make it to the top.

Most consumers don't care where, how, or by whom products are made, says David Vogel at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the Copenhagen climate talks that start today: the meeting will not result in a binding agreement, the timeframe for such an agreement is potentially years away, and of course, neither the US nor China has committed to binding reductions. While all this is certainly disappointing, the […]

Research-backed strategies to help directors ensure that everyone's voice is heard.

Pandemics, global warming, cyberattacks, and other catastrophes are a question of when, not if.

Two trends will force business into action.

(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will...

And how to support them.

Too little conflict can be as big a problem as too much.

Four questions to ask before you make a painful decision.

The great volcanic eruption in Iceland has stranded seven million travelers and is costing airlines at least $1 billion in lost revenue this week. This...

Five steps health organizations can take.

When a crisis forces outside directors to navigate major changes, investors and directors must adopt new roles. The largest such case to date provides some useful lessons. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group was a 60/40 joint venture between Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading. It was run by a five-person committee of managing directors […]

L. Gordon Crovitz of Dow Jones describes how his company and Reuters successfully launched Factiva.

If you are the leader of a large organization (or only of yourself) who cares about improving the world, here’s a question you should consider: How will you participate in the global solution networks that are increasingly managing to address the world’s problems? A global solution network is a group of independent parties that have […]