What do private companies about to do an IPO worry about most? Corporate governance. That's right -- corporate governance, according to recent polls conducted by KPMG. 64 percent of executives named corporate governance as one of their top three concerns about going public. Recent events demonstrate that corporate governance is an important ...
Category Archives: Risk Management and Risk Optimization
What Entrepreneurs Need To Know About Going Public: Ongoing Disclosure Requirements
San Francisco Business Attorney Douglas Y. Park discusses the ongoing SEC disclosure requirements associated with becoming a public company — whether you become public through an IPO or otherwise.
Corporate Governance And CEO Compensation Collide At Abercrombie & Fitch
San Francisco Business Lawyer Douglas Y. Park is interviewed by TIME magazine about Abercrombie & Fitch’s buy out of its CEO’s private use of the company jet. What a corporate governance mess.
Strategies Private Companies Should Take When Employees Sell Stock
In my last post, I discussed Facebook's new stock trading policy that restricts when and how employees can sell company stock. This raises the broader question of what private companies should do when employees sell stock. In this post, I discuss (1) why private ...
Facebook Restricts Stock Trading To Avoid Going Public
Facebook just took another move to avoid going public. Late last week, Facebook implemented a policy that prohibits employees from selling their company stock unless a trading window is in effect, or from tipping outsiders on inside company information. In doing so, Facebook ...
Boards Of Directors Refocus On Strategy And Risk
What is on directors' minds these days? The Spencer Stuart US Board Index 2009 reports that S&P 500 board members put corporate strategy and risk management at the top of the agenda. Why did strategy and risk become the biggest issues on directors' mind in ...
Breaking Down The Silos That Separate Business People And Lawyers
In many companies, business and legal operate as separate silos. On the business side, there is business development, corporate development, marketing, finance, and human resources. On the legal side, there are in-house attorneys and outside counsel. Business sees legal as a cost ...
The Risk Of Using Location Based Services: Higher Insurance Premiums
Do you use location based services, such as Foursquare, Twitter, or Facebook? If so, you may start paying a price in the form of higher home insurance premiums. Why? Because social media, geolocation, and location ...
Why Strategy, Law, And Organization?
In this post, I advance a simple argument: A combined Strategy, Law, and Organization lens provides superior solutions to difficult business and legal problems. Good business lawyers understand that legal problems are necessarily business problems. Yet, understanding the law, by itself, is ...
Compensation and Reputation Risk Under New SEC Disclosure Rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new disclosure rules mandate disclosure of material adverse risks created by compensation policies. A prominent corporate attorney's recent analysis of compensation program design and risk focuses on process, but completely ignores reputation risk. Reputation risk ...