Americans tend to admire powerful leaders. Powerful leaders are seen as exerting influence over their organizations and shaping outcomes around them. CEO power can be exercised across a wide spectrum of decisions, including those regarding corporate strategy, operations, acquisitions,...

For much of its history, Berkshire Hathaway has been regarded primarily as the investment vehicle of Warren Buffett rather than a bona fide corporation. However, as Berkshire Hathaway has expanded beyond its core insurance operations, more attention is being paid to the structure by which these...

Companies are required to have a reliable system of corporate governance in place at the time of IPO in order to protect the interests of public company investors and stakeholders. Yet, relatively little is known about the process by which they implement one. This Closer Look, based on detailed...

Corporate governance systems exist to discourage self-interested behavior. One question that is often overlooked is how extensive these systems should be. A look at corporate governance today suggests that self-interest is high because companies are compelled - by regulators and the market - to...

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger is well known as the partner of CEO Warren Buffett and also for his advocacy of “multi-disciplinary thinking” — the application of fundamental concepts from across various academic disciplines to solve complex real-world problems. One problem...

Many institutional investors rely on a proxy advisory firm to assist them in voting the company proxy and fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to vote in the interest of beneficial shareholders. The largest and most influential proxy advisory firm is Institutional Shareholder Services...

In the late 1990s, UtiliCorp United, a utility that owned natural gas and power assets in the Midwest and internationally, moved aggressively into the business of wholesale energy trading. The move came after Congress passed legislation that opened wholesale energy markets to competition, with...

In 2007, corporate governance became a well-discussed topic in the business press. Newspapers produced detailed accounts of corporate fraud, accounting scandals, excessive compensation, and other perceived organizational failures—many of which culminated in lawsuits, resignations, and...

In 2007, there were three prominent corporate governance ratings firms - The Corporate Library (TCL), Governance Metrics International (GMI), and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). These firms assessed the effectiveness and deficiency of the governance systems of thousands of publicly...

Eugene Isenberg, CEO of Nabors Industries, was listed in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article as one of the highest paid executives in the U.S. over the previous 14 years. He received this compensation as a result of a unique bonus arrangement and large stock option grants with several favorable...