Here’s how our board started. We founded Dialpad in 2011. There were no investors, so the board was my co-founders and me. When we raised our Series A, Wesley Chan, who was then a general partner at Google Ventures, joined us on the board. In 2012, we raised our Series B, and Marc Andreessen joined. You can probably see where this is going...
In April, a Los Angeles judge ruled that California's landmark law mandating that corporations diversify their boards with members from certain racial, ethnic or LGBT groups is unconstitutional...
For many years, businesses considered environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives as nice-to-haves. But, today, any company looking to attract new customers, partners and employees must be committed to the environment and social good...
No longer considered "nice to have," environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives are fast-becoming essential to long-term business strategy and growth. These initiatives not only strive to create corporate transparency while aligning businesses with what's best for the planet and people, but they also drive brand affinity and consumer trust...
Ten years ago, brands could get by without making a statement. But disease, social injustice, economic collapse and war are weighing heavily on your shoppers’ minds right now. While the world is never going to be a perfect place, it’s clear that shoppers expect businesses to do more than just provide products and services...
Kohl’s on Friday mailed a letter to shareholders, written by incoming Kohl’s board chair Peter Boneparth urging the shareholders to vote for all 13 of Kohl’s current director nominees, ahead of Kohl’s May 11, shareholders meeting...
In the last several weeks, most of the attention in the corporate governance world has been focused on the drama playing out between Elon Musk and Twitter’s board of directors—especially the Twitter board’s decision to install a “poison pill” to prevent Musk from attempting a hostile takeover...
Board directors know that many recent workplace and workflow changes are here to stay; staff need to know we're looking out for their best interests...
A Twitter shareholder Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Tesla CEO Elon Musk alleging that Musk manipulated Twitter’s share price by delaying an announcement that he had acquired over 5% ownership in the company by March 14, breaking SEC rules in the process...
Every private company has its own set of ownership issues, competitive dynamics and resource constraints to optimize. As you would expect, private companies vary widely on what they want their boards to accomplish. Setting these priorities starts with understanding the basics of governance...
Mathematician Andrew Wiles compared the process of doing mathematics to navigating a dark mansion, stating: “One stumbles around bumping into the furniture but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is. Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it’s all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were.”...
The board’s governance committee can gain valuable insight on the conflicts disclosure and review process from the current highly public ethics controversy involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia, a well known conservative political activist...
The debate over the purpose of corporations is over—or at least it appears that way. Like in a plot twist, shareholders are now widely perceived as the best advocates of stakeholders’ interests...
Taking an emerging company public is a thrilling, expensive and time-consuming proposition. Determining your firm’s value, organizing and compiling reporting documents and putting together an IPO advisory team...
For years, security professionals have been asking the same question: "How can we get our board of directors to prioritize cybersecurity?" Fortunately, the time has finally come, and boards are not only going to start paying attention but will likely also start asking a lot of questions...
The need to develop environmental, social and corporate governance-based purpose and values is one of the biggest transformational challenges marketing has ever faced. Until recently, marketing’s role was chiefly to help drive growth, profits and customer lead generation by developing the company’s brand and communications...
At a recent audit committee meeting we were briefed by our Big Four accounting firm on cyber-risk. They referenced a two-page notification from the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, sent to Directors on February 25, 2022 urging Corporate Directors to be mindful and prepared for cyber-risks during the evolving Ukraine crisis...
Shareholder activists who are searching for undervalued or underperforming companies could find an exceptionally target-rich environment among the SPACs that completed M&A deals in the last few years. But successful SPACtivism, as it’s now called, won’t be as easy as it looks on the surface. Nothing worth doing is ever that easy...
When I work with the boards of large companies, I see much more emphasis on protecting value than on building value by embracing needed changes. Most board members are current or retired CEOs, CFOs or directors at similar companies...
In America alone, there are over 7,500 professionals serving as paid board members. However, the vast majority of these professionals serve on boards of publicly traded companies as well as privately owned companies financially backed by venture capital (VC) or private equity (PE), as per their governing by-laws...
Women who tap into strengths of empathy and being emotionally intelligent, capital-efficient, multidimensional and collaborative have a tremendous opportunity to lead and succeed...
Public companies are not only subject to board inspection but also to the scrutiny of public markets. With that scrutiny comes a much wider—and brighter—spotlight on company behavior and management practices...
Environmental, Social, and Governance, commonly shown as ESG, is a catch-all for a set of non-financial metrics for companies to track issues becoming increasingly important to investors...
The return to a Cold War environment, and the resulting application of so-called economic warfare, will become a critical new enterprise risk for governing boards to identify and monitor...