Co-ordinated governance

Global crises have revealed the importance of access to capital markets and they, in turn, rely on good standards of corporate governance.

So says Masato Kanda, vice minister for finance in Japan and chair of the OECD’s corporate governance committee, who writes in the Financial Times that good governance is a “prerequisite” for the global functioning of capital.

The committee has just put out a revamped baseline governance code for members to use or, of course, improve.

But the link Kanda makes between governance and crisis survival, even those like the pandemic, is sobering.

“The challenges facing our economies today are global in nature,” Kanda writes. “That calls for co-ordinated solutions.” Good governance, he argues, is part of the solution.

Lonely leaders

It’s lonely at the top. And, according to new research, leaders need to get a little bit closer to their staff and colleagues to feel less isolated.

Conducted by the Rotterdam School of Management, a series of interviews with corporate leaders reveals many are “particularly” vulnerable to feelings of loneliness.

Meanwhile complementary polling of 650 middle managers concludes that leaders who feel “powerful” share “more of themselves” at work and therefore feel less lonely. The same survey found that “lonely” leaders often suffered from poor sleep.

Hodar Lam, lead researcher on the project, concludes closer bonds and structured mentoring can help people “feel more at home”. Meanwhile, delegation of more decision-making responsibilities can also help because loneliness can stem from “personal powerlessness”.

Lam says his work is a “timely response to the loneliness epidemic and calls for more attention to leader well-being issues in research and practice.”

Decade at the top

And it’s so long and thanks for all the corporate governance to Kerrie Waring, chief executive of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), after she announced her retirement this week.

Waring will step down next year after a decade running the organisation and ensuring the views of shareholders are heard around the world on the prickly subject of corporate governance.

“Driven by our flagship principles,” Waring says, “ICGN is now recognised as a global standard setter by regulators and an influential forum to share knowledge and experience amongst market practitioners.”

Good luck Kerrie. Corporate governance won’t be the same.

Societal consequences

To a bit of insight illuminating the impact of “competitiveness” on ESG scores. A team of researchers from the University of Bath and Switzerland’s University of St Gallen conducted some analysis and found that companies under greater domestic and foreign competitive pressure had “lower ESG scores”.

The team writes: “Increasing competitive pressure does not lead to increased investment in ESG but instead appears to curb ESG activities.

“Hence while competition undoubtedly fosters positives outcomes, such as lower price and enhanced quality, it may bear potentially negative societal consequence by diminishing a firm’s commitment to sustainability.”

A lot of issues there to unravel. And no time to waste.