Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
Necessary - But Not Sufficient
As if the difficulties of assessing a group are not enough there is the absence of a clear connection between that process and its results and the reasons for the continued existence of the organization behind the board. To be blunt, we need to understand a great more about the links between good governance and the ability of the organization to achieve its goals. Otherwise, the annual evaluation of the board and its directors is supportive but not conclusive; necessary but not sufficient…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
In God We Trust
The message is on every US dollar and one might say, “Sure - but who else?” By the small hours of the morning on Sunday, September 28, the US Congress announced that a US$700 billion lifeboat was in the slips, ready for launching to save the economy. It sank by midday Monday. The United Sates Congress plus that beleaguered nation’s Federal Reserve and its Treasury Department returned to the table at once, seeking an answer, any answer. While even the Delphic Oracle cannot tell us what will transpire as the next few months or years unfold, there is one certainty: the rarest commodity in the market is trust…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
Can You Skate?
In the team sport called corporate governance every director must play well or the board will lose a lot of games, suggesting that every player brings certain essential skills to every encounter. In Canada’s national sport every player on the ice skates well, it is a prerequisite to being on the team, and this article is about an equally crucial skill for any director on any board, a competency sometimes referred to as “financial literacy”. These comments were motivated by a recent conversation with a CEO with the same views…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
Watch for the Red Lights
In “Mischief of Many Sorts” I offered the view that rules are all very well but they follow the dictum of necessary but not sufficient. I concluded that piece on the issue of ethics and asked the question: “How should directors prepare for the sins they know will be committed?” Sound, strongly held ethics are the best defense, and if we could only be sure that they will always be in operation this page would be unnecessary - but it is…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
Mischief of Many Sorts
Once upon a time, in a land far away, or at least south of the 49 th parallel, the guys with the black hats grabbed the cash and rode out of town. Sheriff Paul Sarbanes and his deputy, Mike Oxley, sprang into action and, well, you know the rest…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
As the Twig is Bent
Virgil said, “As the twig is bent so is the tree inclined”, just one of his many catchy phrases that achieved proverb status. Its essential wisdom has been the subject of everything from books to stage plays to human research, and I am borrowing it for the title of a few words on creating a company’s first board of directors…
Don Hathaway
Governance DNA
Governance DNA
Writing a book is one of those wonderful events that reveal challenges in a progressive sequence, most of them totally unexpected. So it was with “Chairs and Tables: Corporate Governance for Small Business”, my most recent book, which was humbling in its revelations about what I knew, or thought that I knew, versus the truth of the matter. One of the first issues was the discovery that, although many had personal views and opinions, a generally accepted definition of corporate governance simply did not exist…