The Conference Board KnowlEdge Series® Archive Library
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The Changing Face of Shareholder Activism: Best Practices for Companies for Engagement, Assessment and Response
| Apr. 29, 2010 | Session I: Shareholder activism has increasingly moved from the fringes to the mainstream. In the current proxy season, activists are filing unprecedented numbers of shareholder proposals, ranging from board structure and composition to the removal of anti-takeover mechanisms, and from enhanced disclosures on risk and leadership succession to the adoption of shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation. In some cases, activists are engaging constructively with companies to seek agreeable solutions without the cost and distractions often associated with protracted proxy contests. In other circumstance, the gap between the two parties is too great to overcome and proxy fights and legal disputes seem to be the only recourse available. |
Aligning with the Business: Diversity & Inclusion's Strategic Partners (Asia-Pacific)
| Apr. 15, 2010 | Session I: The essential role of senior leaders: How to more engage leaders as champions for your D&I initiative? The Asian context is rich with diversity – companies operating across multiple countries with significant differences in business, legal and social/cultural contexts and a variety of corporate cultures. Some organizations develop policies and programs centrally and migrate them to other geographies; others provide a broad framework and then allow the leadership in the territories to craft their a local strategy. Regardless of the approach your organization takes, real and lasting success is only achieved when senior leaders embrace D&I as an integral component of their leadership responsibilities and business success. |
| Apr. 22, 2010 | Session II: Maximising the Value and Effectiveness of Employee Networks With minimal resources supporting D&I initiatives across Asia, how can companies extend the reach and impact of their policies, practices and programs? Employee Networks provide a powerful and far-reaching means for expanding scope. What are the challenges and barriers as well as the best practices when considering the use of Employee Networks? |
Competing in the Wireless World
| Mar. 10, 2010 | Session I: Wireless —the impact of the 4G revolution could be bigger than the Internet Co-Host Scott Snyder will make the case that we are about to see a major shift in the current wireless systems model, creating disruption across the entire value chain with distributed, self-organizing wireless users gaining more primary control over future services and how they deliver value. This shift will present a unique opportunity for companies with the right skills and culture to innovate and create profit opportunities around these new platforms. It will also threaten to cripple businesses that are too rigid and hierarchical to shift the power of decisions and experimentation to the edge of their business. Attempts by large companies and their CIOs to try to reign in unapproved devices and applications will seem like rearguard skirmishes. |
| Mar. 18, 2010 | Session II: Alternative Unwired Futures: How Do you Know Where to Place Your Bets? Given the uncertainties of rapidly evolving technologies, how do companies begin to plan now, when the stakes are so high? Using the drivers and themes identified in the first webcast, this session will explore possible scenarios for the unwired future, the implications of each for organizations and industries, and how to identify and evaluate the impact of this new world on your business. Systems thinking and scenario planning help provide frameworks for understanding and assessing the interactions and possible market outcomes. |
| Mar. 25, 2010 | Session III: Organizing for Innovation: Strategies for a 4G World What are the common organizational characteristics for success in an unwired world? How can you establish a "wireless ecosystem" that supports and facilitates the innovation of new products and services and opportunity-sensitive business models? How do you engage with your existing networks of employees, partners and customers to scan for new signals, innovate and launch new offerings, and learn from the market? This session features a company that is redefining and redesigning its business model to adapt to the new reality. |
Climate Change: Getting the Incentives Right
| Mar. 24, 2010 | Session I: Producers: how to drive low carbon production? What are the incentives that currently drive an economic landscape that is carbon intensive in the U.S. and throughout the world? The discussion will explore the role of a price on carbon and additional policies, such as energy or fuel efficiency standards in lowering the carbon intensity of economic activity. Measures that may be more effective than carbon markets alone in reducing GHG emissions will also be discussed, as will the need to recognize and avoid perverse incentives in the design of cap and trade markets, such as the EU ETS or the US scheme that has been raised in the Congress. Incentive innovations with the potential to dramatically restructure markets will also be identified. |
| Mar. 31, 2010 | Session II: Consumers: what will change consumer behavior? The second session explores which incentives have the potential to change consumer behavior toward a lower carbon intensive path. As public awareness of climate change grows, opinion surveys find alternating levels of consumer concern over GHG emissions. The impact of this consumer volatility on corporate strategy, communications, and marketing will be explored. Issues such as product labels, greater transparency on ingredients and avoiding the pitfalls of "green-wash" will also be addressed. The role of information campaigns and the effectiveness or not of reliance on market price signals to influence consumer preferences will also be discussed, as will the interaction between consumer and producer initiatives. |
| Apr. 7, 2010 | Session III: Investors: will capital markets finance th agenda? There is a growing consensus that private investment will provide the bulk of the massive funds required for a shift toward a low carbon economy. This past decade has seen the gradual adoption of climate change as a Wall Street issue. This session will discuss the reasons behind this transformation and the role the financial sector can and will play in climate change mitigation strategies. The discussion will explore the impact of increased disclosure of corporate climate change risks and whether it is sufficient to attract investors. Weaknesses, in governance and compensation practices, short-termism and overextended risk-taking and other practices will be discussed for their impacts on climate mitigation results. Are capital markets the best vehicle to direct these investments or are other avenues more appropriate and effective? |
Building and Managing a World Class Global Supply Chain in a New Economic Reality
| Mar. 2, 2010 | Session I: The New Economic Reality — How One Company is Adapting
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| Mar. 16, 2010 | Session II: The Building Blocks of a Global Supply Chain
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| Mar. 30, 2010 | Session III: Applying the Right Metrics
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Aligning with the Business: Diversity & Inclusion’s Strategic Partners
| Feb. 25, 2010 | Session I: Diversity and Legal/General Council: Clearing Up the Confusion In a recent informal survey, 81% of corporate D&I officers indicated they report to the HR function. Yet HR often seen as a barrier to developing an organization’s inclusive environment. In this session, we identify some of the barriers to full participation of D&I in the overall business strategy and speak with an organization that has overcome them to create a partnership between HR and D&I to benefit the business. |
| Mar. 4, 2010 | Session II: Partnering with Marketing to Leverage the Investment in D&I Whether expanding into a new market, launching a new product or rebranding a core product, or communicating with old customers or attracting new ones, diversity & inclusion can and should play a key role in how an organization approaches this work. By leveraging the diversity within your organization errors can be avoided and bigger gains can be had by the organization. |
| Mar. 11, 2010 | Session III: HR and D&I: A Common Goal, Different Paths Protecting the enterprise and creating an inclusive environment are sometimes seen as in opposition to one another. Diversity and inclusion leaders seek to share information either to demonstrate progress or to highlight a problem. Lawyers want to protect the institution from claims of bias. This session will discuss how both functions can achieve their goals in a way that allows for both progress and protection and what the relationship between the legal and D&I functions should be. |
What to Expect Out of Washington in 2010
| Feb. 17, 2010 | Session I: Fiscal Policy and Taxes: Are There Winners and Losers in 2010? In light of the massive fiscal budget deficits and rising debt levels facing the U.S., what key fiscal policy initiatives do we expect to see in President Obama’s upcoming 2011 fiscal budget — who will the winners and losers be? What changes in tax policy is corporate America likely to face? Will President Obama go back on his promise not to raise personal income tax rates on most tax payers, with the exception being the top two tax brackets? |
| Feb. 24, 2010 | Session II: Global Monetary Policy and Interest Rates: What Will the Timing Be? The unprecedented degree of global monetary policy coordination was successful in staving off a second Great Depression. However, now attention must focus on how and when central banks will unwind their special liquidity measures. A few central banks have already begun to raise interest rates but the key question is when and at what pace the Federal Reserve and other major central banks begin to raise their rates. What impact will this have on corporate borrowing rates? What are the risks surrounding the outlook for global monetary policy? |
| Mar. 3, 2010 | Session III: Financial Sector Reform It is clear that the US has experienced a banking crisis of historical proportions - one that is far from over. As attention turns from healthcare to reform of the financial sector, what are the issues and the likely shape of the reform agenda? What are the US and global implications of various scenarios and what is the expected timetable for policy changes? |
Global Terms: Achieving Corporate Agility to Address Critical Needs
| Dec. 1, 2009 | Session I: Network Power: Enabling Teams in the Virtual World What is the evolution of a corporate culture that encourages the rapid assembly and deployment of effective global teams? What are the barriers to this kind of organization-wide agility? What are the supporting factors that can help build that capability? FedEx exemplifies the global organization reliant on a loosely-coupled network of professionals around the world addressing product development and delivery and operational challenges in multiple markets, geographies and cultures around the world. This session will address the human and technical issues related to building and leading an effective cross-functional global team. |
| Dec. 7, 2009 | Session II: Institutionalizing Results: Solving Problems/Moving On Global teams can be very effective when focused on a specific challenge that can be "solved" with the timely application of dedicated resources. How do the results of these "swat team" projects get effectively integrated into the larger organization? What are best practices for incorporating ongoing innovation and problem-solving agility into the organization as a whole? This session will look at how, using global team, P&G innovated a whole new manufacturing process in order to build — and maintain — their competitive position in Latin America. |
| Dec. 9, 2009 | Session III: Redefining "We": Identifying, Enlisting and Engaging Team Members across Functions, Time and Space What is the evolution of a corporate culture that encourages the rapid assembly and deployment of effective global teams? What are the barriers to this kind of organization-wide agility? What are the supporting factors that can help build that capability? FedEx exemplifies the global organization reliant on a loosely-coupled network of professionals around the world addressing product development and delivery and operational challenges in multiple markets, geographies and cultures around the world. This session will address the human and technical issues related to building and leading an effective cross-functional global team. |
Employee Engagement in Asia-Pacific
| Nov. 10, 2009 | Session I: Assessing Your Employee Value Proposition against Key Engagement Factors Retaining "critical talent", especially in time of economic uncertainty combined with rapid growth, depends on two important factors: the Employee Value Proposition (EVA) that targets important needs for key employees, and Employee Engagement (EE), the level to which employees feel connected to a company. This first session will focus on Employee Engagement and what we know about its drivers in companies globally and in Asia in particular. We will look at the results of unique research conducted by The Conference Board, and review current best practices in the area of EE for critical employees. The goal of this session is to help companies in Asia identify, monitor and understand the dynamics of employee engagement with this vital segment of your workforce. |
| Nov. 17, 2009 | Session II: Understanding the Dynamics of Employee Engagement This session will explore how companies can asess their current EVP for those in critical roles against measures of Employee Engagement and the expectations of key employees. The discussion will focus on improving alignment to increase retention and leverage critical talent, including ways global and local companies in Asia-Pacific are addressing these issues. |
Corporate Citizenship through Employee Volunteerism
| Nov. 5, 2009 | Session I: Changing Content: Skills-Based and Capacity-Building Volunteerism As corporate philanthropic budgets shrink, companies are increasingly looking for other ways to provide value to nonprofit partners. Human Resources Departments are also looking for ways to provide developmental opportunities to both high-potential and operations-level employees. Skills-based and capacity-building volunteerism programs can address both these needs. |
| Nov. 12, 2009 | Session II: Changing Demographics: Volunteerism to Engage a Younger Workforce Data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that persons age 35 to 44 are the most likely to volunteer, while persons in their early twenties are the least likely. For companies that employ a significant number of young adults, this data presents a challenge. How do younger workers differ from their older counterparts when it comes to volunteering? How can they best be engaged? |
| Nov. 19, 2009 | Session III: Changing Boarders: International Volunteer Programs Recent data from The Conference Board indicates that U.S.-based companies spend, on average, 24% of their contributions budgets outside the U.S., and that those investments are largely driven by the size of the company’s workforce in local markets. Volunteer participation rates by employees outside the U.S., however, lag far behind their U.S. counterparts. For global companies committed to truly global programs, how can non-U.S. employees be more engaged in the company’s community involvement efforts? |
Carbon Shift
| Nov. 12, 2009 | Session I: How Real? How Soon? Where Carbon Pricing Efforts Stand Efforts to cut carbon emissions that are a byproduct of so many industrial and business processes and modern living itself are accelerating at the global, national and regional levels. What is the status and magnitude of the efforts to set a price on carbon that are a part of this trend? How should companies prepare for the change to come, no matter how the coming global climate change talks in Copenhagen turn out. |
| Nov. 19, 2009 | Session II: Carbon Pricing and its Effects on Corporate Value and the Competitive Landscape As the rules addressing the presence of carbon in business activity develop and change, so too will the value of brands, lines of business and entire industries. Abandoning an economic diet rich in carbon and adopting a carbon-lean or 'green' economic regimen will change the basis for competition, innovation and growth both within and across national economies. What will be the new sources of advantage and disadvantage in the low-carbon era that has begun? |
Corporate Governance and the New Focus on Leadership
| Oct. 1, 2009 | Session I: Corporate Governance Best Practices for Talent Management The economy, government regulations, increased public scrutiny and shifting marketplace conditions are increasing pressure on boards of directors to assume closer oversight over management performance, succession planning and compensation. Boards are seeking to delve deeper into the business, evaluating the viability of strategies while scrutinizing how well your top talent is prepared to execute in an increasingly uncertain and demanding environment. What data is the Board likely to require and what are the relevant issues around transparency and accountability they will be looking for? |
| Oct. 15, 2009 | Session II: The Power of the Board in Engaging the Organization Chief Talent Officers can serve as an important link between the Board on one hand and the company’s pool of present and future leaders on the other. Sometimes Talent Officers provide so much data that the Board feels over stimulated and unfocused. Successful execution of the strategy requires a direct link between your business strategy and your talent management process. How and what you communicate to the Board on talent can result in a clear line of vision for all. In turn, using the power of the board to engage your top talent in their own development can help accomplish your goals of alignment between talent management, succession management and business strategy execution. Discover how Cisco is preparing a pool of successors to the CEO role based on potential future business models. |
| Oct. 29, 2009 | Session III: The Board—Management Relationship: How is it Evolving? How can companies meet shareholder expectations on issues relating to governance, compensation and CEO succession that are sensitive, complex, proprietary and subject to perceived conflicts of interest? How can CEO succession planning be better integrated with the company’s talent management program? How can executive compensation be better linked with business strategy and performance goals? How can communication with both internal and external audiences on these topics be improved? How can directors work more effectively with the talent management function to fulfill the board’s role of representing shareholder interests? |
China in the Lead
| Sept. 30, 2009 | Session I: China and the Global Crisis—The Inside Story China arguably has the right conditions and tools to achieve world-leading recovery. However, the stimulus programs and measures embrace some old centrist formulae that may not work for today’s China and/or amidst the current global backdrop. Hence, the sustainability of the government-investment fueled stimulus growth is questionable. Structural rebalancing and further market reform is a likely requirement to achieve sustainable growth. Will this happen? |
| Oct. 6, 2009 | Session II: China and the Global Crisis—The Outside Story Large Chinese firms appear more poised than ever to begin significant international M&A—albeit this has been a looming prospect for some time that has not yet materialized. While the "go out" campaign has very real aspirations, its execution has been slow, difficult and in many cases contentious. Acquiring resources and intellectual property to defend positions in domestic Chinese markets may be the primary motivation, not expanding China’s competitive footprint internationally—yet. |
| Oct. 15, 2009 | Session III: China—Led integration of Asian Economies—An Opportunity of Threat? With the fall off in export demand from the US and EU, China has been focused on expanding trade relationships in Asia and other emerging markets. To this end, China has recently extended the equivalent of more than USD 100 billion in RMB for use in trade settlement between China and its Asia Pacific trading partners. In parallel, China has been aggressively expanding Free Trade Agreements and resource deals in Asia. Will this strategy work, and if it does, what does it mean for business globally? |
Managing Human Capital