{"id":205,"date":"2006-02-22T11:01:38","date_gmt":"2006-02-22T11:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2006\/02\/22\/a_different_typ\/"},"modified":"2006-02-22T11:01:38","modified_gmt":"2006-02-22T11:01:38","slug":"a_different_typ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=205","title":{"rendered":"A different type of stakeholder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although I haven&#8217;t followed his career closely <a href=&quot;www.companydirectors.com.au\/&quot;>Don<br \/>\nArgus<\/a> has always struck me as a deep and broad minded thinker. There<br \/>\nare other powerful CEOs and chairmen that don&#8217;t evoke the same confidence<br \/>\nin their ability to think beyond profit and power. A certain telecommunications<br \/>\ncarrier comes to mind in that respect.<\/p>\n<p>Don Argus came to my attention again this morning in <a href=&quot;http:\/\/newsstore.fairfax.com.au\/apps\/viewDocument.ac?page=1&amp;sy=afr&amp;kw=stakeholder&amp;pb=afr&amp;dt=selectRange&amp;dr=1month&amp;so=relevance&amp;sf=text&amp;sf=headline&amp;rc=10&amp;rm=200&amp;sp=0&amp;clsPage=1&amp;docID=AFR060222GI18I7A4RAH&quot;>this<br \/>\narticle<\/a> [<em>Subscription Required<\/em>] in the <a href=&quot;http:\/\/afr.com&quot;>Fin<br \/>\nReview<\/a> today. In this edited extract of a speech he gave yesterday<br \/>\nto the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.companydirectors.com.au\">Australian Institute<br \/>\nof Company Directors<\/a> Argus argues that the narrow focus on shareholder<br \/>\ninterest is misplaced. Certainly shareholders provide the financial capital<br \/>\nfor the company to operate, but many (most?) have no long term commitment<br \/>\nto the company. However: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;should shareholders hold sway over strategy and operational implementation<br \/>\nwhich may force management to drastically change the fortunes of a particular<br \/>\ncompany. These same shareholders could be gone in the blink of an eye by<br \/>\nselling their shares the next day or even the next minute.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Others with no skin in the game (at least financially speaking) may demonstrate<br \/>\nmuch longer term commitment and interest (although as Argus points out in<br \/>\nthe case of French activist <a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/profile\/jose_bove.shtml&quot;>Jos&eacute;<br \/>\nBov&eacute;<\/a> that interest may be negative). Employees come to my<br \/>\nmind as a group that provide a certain type of capital without which the long<br \/>\nterm growth of the company would be impossible. To expect that we can gain<br \/>\nthe commitment we require from this group in return for salary and conditions<br \/>\nis, in my mind, naive.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Argus goes on to argue that boards need to take into account,<br \/>\nand balance, the interests of a broad group of stakeholders. A fine balancing<br \/>\nact not doubt, but one that reflects the realities of modern corporate life<br \/>\n\u2014 telco CEO take note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I haven&#8217;t followed his career closely Don Argus has always struck me as a deep and broad minded thinker. There are other powerful CEOs and chairmen that don&#8217;t evoke the same confidence in their ability to think beyond profit and power. A certain telecommunications carrier comes to mind in that respect. Don Argus came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}