public board process Archives

Why activist shareholders travel in packs

Have you ever wondered why activist shareholders travel in packs? It's because they are significantly less effective alone—just like any other minority on a board. Activists (often hedge funds) accumulate a position in a stock because they want to make change happen at a company and, by making change happen, they will make money on their investment. It may be that they think the company is being mismanaged and so is undervalued against its potential. It may be that they think it should be broken up and the pieces sold [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-10T13:36:39-08:00June 5, 2012|Boards|0 Comments

How to understand your board’s baffling behavior

Boards don't behave like management teams and their sometimes seemingly baffling behavior can be an irritant to management. But if you can get inside the head and motivation of a board member you can, with a little distortion of the nth dimension, understand their behavior.Whether it's a public company board, a start up board or a non-profit board there are perspectives a board member has that give them a very different view than the senior management team:1. They don't live it every day. Some board members do a better job [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T16:59:35-08:00March 7, 2012|Boards, Leadership|0 Comments

NYSE Commission on Corporate Governance: Sense in the face of the nonsensical

As the financial markets blew up, and the wealth divide of the US opened up further, cries to change the way companies are run have grown louder and more capricious. Corporate governance has become the fig leaf a board can hide behind. Proxy advisory firms gain more Mob-like power , boards become driven by fear (consider the recent fear-based actions of the HP board) and fewer high quality execs want to serve on public boards (one of the reasons boards get so clubby - hang out with people you know [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:13:34-08:00September 24, 2010|Boards|0 Comments

In person trumps telephone every time

I've had a couple of recent incidents where I was reminded, yet again, of how important it is to meet in person on critical decisions.I say this in a context where today most of my daily meetings have some phone component. FirstRain is across three sites: San Mateo, New York and Gurgaon and so most of our meetings and discussions will have at least one person on the phone. So we have had to get good at it. And we use GoToMeeting a lot (if you use WebEx today - [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:17:23-08:00August 26, 2009|Career Advice|1 Comment