I'd love to go to Davos, just to watch all the networking at the WEF. That thought was prompted by reading Robert Peston's blog
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16702449
I'm not very keen on Peston, something about his style and strange inflection - I much prefer Stephanie Flanders' interpretation of the economic situation (and her dad was a lot more entertaining than Robert's...) But he's spot on in his comments about the impact on NEDs of encouraging investors to take more responsibility for corporate governance issues, although I think "castrating" is a bit over the top. Since the focus shifted to owners and stewardship some years ago I've asked this question at a couple of presentations by leading scholars but it's always been dismissed. I had a very interesting conversation once with an experienced NED who told me stories about the fatal effect of activist investors on boards she had sat on. Of course, there's a subtle difference between activist and active investors.

Much comment on executive pay after yesterday's statement by Vince Cable - decided that the best way of keeping up would be to put it in one of my lectures to force me to assimilate the developments.

I have been struggling to catch up with a to-do list that lengthened alarmingly when I was again hit by a bug - the cottonwool brain effect took a long time to clear and I seemed to become embroiled in meetings but this week I've recaptured some space and made some progress with more interesting things. I've managed to read and comment on two PhD theses, one for a colleague and the Belgian one - as I can't attend the private defence I have to send in my questions. I also have the new post-doc's to read which I am looking forward to. Marking a late MSc dissertation and a resit took time. Completing a REF impact statement took even longer!
I've managed to prepare my two guest lectures: the undergraduate one involves providing an exam question as well which took some time. And, as moderator for another assessment, I'll have some work to do on that shortly.

The ECGI conference at the Said was very interesting but the first day was in a room in the Law Faculty that was so cold I was shivering. Just as well that I'd read some of the papers beforehand - I could just about keep up with the fascinating discussion. The lawyers and economists really seem to work well with each other on these issues. I had a couple of useful conversations but didn't have the energy for my usual bouncing about and networking.

Am now pondering a paper that draws together my thoughts about independence and diversity with a title like "Be careful what you wish for". Crunch time for the Cadbury project next week.

Friday 6 Jan

An interesting paper ( Michael C. Withers, Amy J. Hillman and Albert A. Cannella, Jr. "A Multidisciplinary Review of the Director Selection Literature" Journal of Management 2012 38: 243) raises the question about how directors make decisions about serving on boards which I identified as an important lacuna in NED research in the paper I presented in Brussels (Dec 2010, can't believe it was more than a year ago and I still haven't found the time to write it up properly). The authors don't answer it, of course, but it's good to see it flagged up as an issue that needs to be investigated.

Their review seems very comprehensive and well-organised. I like the way they use Mace, and Lorsch and Maciver, two classic texts on directors, as ways to classify the literature. Their discussion of the bifurcated market for directors - broadly,some sought for monitoring, some for resource provision, as I understand it - raises another point. The UK literature suggested that there was a tension for NEDs between the roles of monitor and advisor (Ezzamel and Watson used the nice metaphor of wearing two hats) but the work done by Roberts, Stiles and McNulty which underpinned the Higgs report seemed to contradict that, or at least indicate that NEDs didn't see this as a problem. The difference hinges on whether a single individual is expected to perform both roles or whether the numbers of NEDs on the board is sufficient to allow the appointment of individuals to fulfil more specifically one of the two roles. As UK boards became predominantly non-exec - a later development than in the US - this could have been a factor in reducing that potential tension.

One thing that I shall certainly do if the NEDs in the public/third sector research gets off the ground is ask NEDs why they are doing the job and, if possible, investigate the appointment process.


Watching this

http://corpgov.proxyexchange.org/2012/01/video-friday-no-legal-duty-to-maximize-shareholder-value/

sent me to see what Lynn Stout has published recently and I found her 2010 book  "Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People", so I've ordered a second hand copy from Amazon (inter-library loan takes such a long time!)

I picked up the link from one of James McRitchie's useful tweets (@corpgovnet) and realised that as well as following up email and Google Reader alerts I spend quite a lot of time following up Twitter links from people like James. I've left the LinkedIn Boards and Advisors group: the traffic was very heavy and I found myself reading far too much anecdotal information posted by consultants, some with some tenuous academic connections, who have no time for rigorous academic analysis and really just want to sell their services.

But I haven't written anything other than emails today...

Thursday 5 Jan 2012

Finding it very difficult to get back into a routine and not sleeping well which makes concentration even more difficult. Spent some of this morning's very early hours literature scanning which is useful but I still have to read all the new stuff I've found. Sometimes I wish I could just shout "Stop!" like the voice on the 1950s radio programme "In Town Tonight" used to so that the flood of material on corporate governance would stop long enough for me to sort out some of the accumulation I have. My filing has been very random which doesn't help. I'm not sure if I dare ask Thom, the new post doc, to do anything quite so menial as put stuff on Endnote...

Yes, the good news is that he starts in a couple of weeks so I am busy working out which projects can be dusted off the shelf and passed on to him. I wonder if I can get him interested in visual metaphors? I've just acquired an interesting book, Visual Methodologies by Gillian Rose, which could be helpful in developing the images paper, although it doesn't have much to say on the copyright problem which is likely to be a stumbling block for publication.

The other good news is that one of our Cadbury interviewees has found some papers which may be useful. When we talked to him he promised to look and I then reminded him a year ago: we'd rather given up so it was a pleasant surprise to hear from him. Of course it may be material that's already in the archive but it will be useful to see. It also provides us an excuse to give the publishers for further delay...

Today I have managed to sort out some admin stuff like expense claims (the online system at ICAEW is very time-consuming, especially as I forget how to do it each time). I've also had a first stab at completing the REF "impact case study template" although the evidence of impact for my work is insubstantial to say the least. The paper on regulation by disclosure is in a 1* journal but it has been cited (three times!) in a recent ICAEW publication and I have an email that says that that publication is part of a pack of information circulated for discussion to members of the Financial Stability Board. Now I need to sort out material for sessions on corporate governance on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes - at least the constant flow of events means that there are plenty of suitable topics to discuss which they may - perhaps - have heard about.

The final Friday of 2011

The lovely quiet bit of the year when email traffic virtually disappears and there is space for catching up - if every month had a few days like this, I would have space for all the projects I'd really like to get on with...

I'm struggling with chapter 5 which was originally written chronologically but doesn't read well so I've tried to reorganise it thematically. This is not working out for two reasons. Firstly, as my co-author has yet to produce chapter 4 I have no idea how that is organised and it would make sense to pick up on the themes she has identified. Secondly, the themes overlap so it is very difficult to classify specific issues under a single heading. I think I shall revert to the chronological approach but spend more time highlighting the themes running through.

I was alerted to a paper on the history of corporate governance recently uploaded to SSRN by a Cambridge legal scholar. I emailed him to let him know of the earliest use of the term which I had discovered, which predated the ones he mentioned. He replied very quickly but was somewhat dismissive, which is not surprising - he struck me as a bit arrogant when I met him. Had he been more receptive, I would have sent him the actual paper but I shall leave him to seek it out from the reference. He claims to have been more welcoming to Cadbury than other legal scholars which may be true but he didn't publish his book until 1997 so I don't think he'll get a mention.

I have been reading Maja's DPhil dissertation which is fascinating and really should be published. She has read a huge amount of literature, across different disciplines. As I was reading, I found myself noting down authors I thought relevant to her arguments - and then turning the page to find that she'd cited them. And I now have a long list of interesting references that I want to follow up, always a good sign of something that was worth reading.

Friday

A very busy week. The ICAEW Information for Better Markets conference on Monday and Tuesday was a mixed bag. The topic, accounting for financial instruments, wasn't exactly exciting (a friend asked if it was about euro violins and dollar dulcimers, which I liked the sound of) but I was very keen to hear Andy Haldane of the Bank of England who was respondent to one of the main papers, and he didn't disappoint. The technical stuff was hard to concentrate on: in one session I sat next to the chair of the research board who snoozed all through it and I don't think he was the only one. The practitioner speakers were good, though. I had some useful conversations in the breaks and caught up with old friends. The food was fairly awful and the hotel - my favourite, the Hoxton - was very noisy with youngsters running up and down the corridor all night. I was pleased to get home although two days away meant an accumulation of email to plough through.

In the most boring bits I pondered why accounting has got so much more complicated than when I first started studying it, 46 years ago. The shift from the traditional stewardship approach, which still underpins UK company law, to the notion of decision-usefulness which underpins accounting standards has led us into a world where risk and uncertainty need to be recognised much more explicitly in calculations and that has brought a host of problems around issues of judgement. The politics of standard-setting has become institutionalised so continuing complexity seems inevitable, as it works in the interests of standard-setters. One of the speakers cited Knight on risk and uncertainty which is on my list of books to read when I get a chance.

The webcast of the event should appear eventually on this page:

http://www.icaew.com/en/technical/financial-reporting/information-for-better-markets/information-for-better-markets-webcasts

On Wednesday we had a departmental meeting which in my view very much reflected the state of chaos we are in. I do find meetings more and more frustrating. People don't seem to have a clear idea of what they want the outcomes to be, no details are circulated in advance to assist the attendees in considering the topics and timing is ignored. Sadly, we bade farewell to one of my favourite colleagues but our Xmas lunch was very jolly.

Since then I have been trying to clear up admin stuff. I have managed to fix a speaker for a seminar slot in March which counts as a success, given that everyone is so busy. Of course, I shall probably have to spend time nearer the date rustling up an audience.

Thursday

A productive day today. Sorted out chapter 2 as far as I can without chapters 1 and 3 and the bits of chapter 2 that my co-author has been promising for months. Revised the first half of chapter 5 but changing the second half  will be the tricky bit - again, because I haven't yet seen chapter 4.

Avoided looking at my email but when I finally succumbed found some further interesting reading for the pile - the latest publication from the FRC about the Combined Code and the Stewardship Code and a nice note from my FRC friend. This report had prompted some of the people on LinkedIn to pontificate about the need for increased regulation and monitoring which irritated me and I wasted some time pointing out the error of their ways. I must reset the way I get messages from LI so that I am not regularly alerted to their idiocies. In a thread on women on boards, it appears that messages have got personal and people have taken offence.

I've received an electronic Xmas card from a friend at MBS and have been forwarded one from Warwick. Both would be mildly entertaining for a child of 5. I wonder why the marketing departments at these universities think this type of greeting is appropriate. And now I see that ICAEW are holding a competition for staff to design ecards: why would a professional body want electronic Valentine's Day cards?

More work on chapter 5 tomorrow. And I must finish with the PhD thesis too.

Tuesday

Monday was spent catching up with colleagues, mostly receiving and passing on information. Annie Pye's ESRC study of boards was reported in the Telegraph and the FT and led to some discussion in the Board Advisors group on LinkedIn. I'm looking forward to reading her study, it's been a huge effort for her with a serious setback initially due to ill health. We exchanged emails and I hope to catch up with her in the new year - we've discussed a project looking at the role of the company secretary and I'd still like to do that, the opportunity to work with her would be very good.

My inbox tells me this has to be a reading week, rather than a writing one. For the REF audit I have to read several papers published by colleagues in journals that do not appear in the ABS list and decide where they would sit in the ranking. This is so subjective that it seems quite pointless to me, especially when the topics are ones with which I am not familiar. The Belgian PhD student, Diane, has sent the final draft of her thesis for approval before submission so that will need careful attention, and then a trip to Louvain in February for her public defence. I am really interested to see how the Belgian process works but the Louvain campus is a bleak place at the best of times, let alone February...

Today we are interviewing for the post doc posts. We have a couple of candidates for our department, one who looks outstanding on paper.

(Later) The interviews were very interesting. Sitting on panels with colleagues always is, I learn more about them than about the interviewees sometimes. The first candidate came over very well but it would have been quite difficult to link her interests into our departmental plans. The second candidate was excellent and would be very good to work with: his background is political science and I can see he'll be a future MP (if the Lib Dems ever recover from the coalition). Hope he turns out to be one of the top five and that he accepts the post if it's offered.

Very good article in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/12/britain-ruled-by-banks
Looked up the CRESC site and found a paper by Julie Froud et al which underpins the book and article - they have written excellent critical stuff on corporate governance so this should be a good read. Added to the pile...

Managed to plough through papers written by colleagues and come up with some kind of categorisation for the audit. Agreed some dissertation marks.

Snowed this afternoon, big wet flakes but they didn't settle. This time last year we were snowed in. Freddie has had his collar taken off and is a happy cat.

More meetings tomorrow and then two clear days for writing, barring domestic disasters...