Bouncebackability

With Elon Musk apparently free to expound on anything and have his fan base lap it up, there’s an industry in analysing the good, the bad and the downright mad elements in founder CEOs (those of us a little older will remember this discourse used to focus on Steve Jobs).

In governance circles, the founder CEO discussion centres on controls: how do boards, shareholders and others counter the all-pervasive power of a founder who holds the controlling shares?

Well, Yifat Aran and Elizabeth Pollman, business profs in Haifa and Pennsylvania, have a sober observation to make.

“Amid the twists and turns of this debate, we observe that a small but important point is missing: a substantial number of founder-CEOs have been ousted—forced or pushed to step down from the CEO role despite maintaining important indicia of control that, according to prevailing theory, empowers them to withstand such pressures.”

Though they also warn: “Ousting can be temporary and founder-CEOs can find their way back to the throne or see a rebirth in new ventures.” You can sack ‘em, but be wary of the Steve Jobs rebound.

A Hollywood pass?

Even sport needs governance and football might need it more than most. There is more on the way, in the shape of a Football Governance Bill listed in this week’s King’s Speech.

At last, you all cry. Football will be squeaky clean. That’s a relief. But, wait, what’s this? In fact, the Chartered Governance Institute (CGI) , a professional club for company secretaries, warns that governance for the beautiful game could take a “decade to get right”. That’s a lot longer than most careers as FA chief executive (but not as long as David Beckham’s Netflix docuseries, or so it seems).

CGI (strange how the CoSec body is named after a big screen special effect) says: “Any new regulatory regime should be regarded as experimental, and subject to regular review.

“The UK has a poor track record at monitoring the impact of new regulatory burdens, but this will be critical in getting governance right.

“Governance is rarely got right in one go. Football governance could take a decade to get right, especially as the new regulatory regime requires cultural change to occur from the current high-risk culture towards a more conservative attitude.”

Given the bill calls for shadow boards comprised of fans, for some owners (not looking at you, Manchester United’s Glazer family, nope, not at all) a decade may begin to feel like eternity.

American flak

Over in the US, Republicans continue to lose their composure over ESG. But now their ire has turned on the European Union and its push for sustainability reporting through the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

According to Paul Fitzpatrick , president of campaign body the 1792 Exchange, Europe is “gloating” over the impact of CSRD on US companies, and guilty of “overreach”, while the US “cannot afford to follow Europe on ESG”.

Fitzpatrick’s remarks follow Republican demands back in July to know what was said between US regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and EU officials over climate disclosures. They claim the SEC may have been “ceding regulatory responsibility to foreign regulators” over climate policies. Perhaps, they add, SEC officials are “wilfully” circumventing the US regulatory process by helping the EU beef up its measures.

The ESG wars continue [sighs heavily, Ed.]