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Corporate Governance in Swenglish Corporate Governance in Swenglish A combination of International “Corporate Governance in Swenglish” is a fact book with cases Corporate Governance Discipline and Swedish Cases based on the Executive Education Program for present and future Board members. The Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance has Raoul Hasselgren a mission to help and create better governed public and private companies. Inspired by the Swedish education for Board members arranged by Stockholm Chamber of Commerce with Raoul Hasselgren as tutor and teacher this booklet is a combination of international Corporate Governance philosophy and practice blended with Swedish experience. www. corporategovernance.ee www. corporategovernance.lv Raoul Hasselgren • Corporate Governance in Swenglish www. corporategovernance.lt www.RZidea.lt 1 Preface The “Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance” has arranged Executive Education for Professional Board Members in the Baltic countries. “Raw material” for the education has been Global Corporate Governance Forum (The Forum), Corporate Governance Board Leadership Toolkit (*), documentation from the Swedish Education for diplomaed Board Members by the Stockholm Chamber of Com- merce and the Handbook – Board Work, written by me, being the tutor and teacher both in the Baltic countries and in Sweden. The context follows the Baltic program, but gives examples and cases from Sweden in particular, thus the title of this booklet – Corporate Governance in Swenglish. I give thanks to Kristian Kaas Mortensen, Carl Berneheim and Torbjörn Lindhe for their assistance and comments to the manuscript. The word Swenglish could also be an excuse for some home-made words in the text. I apologize for that. Stockholm, autumn 2010 Raoul Hasselgren MBA, PhD h.c. P.S. Do observe that local national laws, regulations and codes must be regarded and followed. The examples and cases in this booklet are mainly based on Swedish legislation and code of corporate governance, as examples and illustrations. Copyright Global Corporate Governance Forum www.gsgf.org Copyright Raoul Hasselgren www.raoul.hasselgren.biz [email protected] (*) The Global Corporate Governance Forum is an IFC multi-donor trust fund facility located within IFC Advisory services. The Forum sponsors regional and local initiatives. This booklet is based on their docu- mentation and my own Swedish handbooks and booklets about Corporate Governance Raoul Hasselgren • Corporate Governance in Swenglish 1 Introduction Inspired by the Global Corporate Governance Forum the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance started in 2009 the Executive Education for Professional Board Members. Experienced Baltic and Scandinavian Board Members, Auditors and Lawyers were teachers and speakers. The education was based on documentation from the Global Corporate Governance Forum plus material used by the external guest speakers and local specialists in auditing, legal matters and stock market management. In a similar education in Sweden more than 700 Board Members have been educated by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in the last five years. The documentation has been a Handbook in Board Work. That was the idea behind this booklet. By combining text from power point slides and documentation from the Global Corporate Governance Forum this is a book- let for future education in the Baltic and other countries. The disposition is based on the educational program of the BICG. Chapter 1 What is Corporate Governance 3 Chapter 2 Board’s Role in Governing Strategy 5 Chapter 3 The Board’s composition 8 Chapter 4 Board practices 11 Chapter 5 Board Committees 15 Chapter 6 Shareholders 17 Chapter 7 Board’s role in strategic planning 20 Chapter 8 Disclosure and reporting 24 Chapter 9 Board evaluation 26 Chapter 10 Removal of Board Directors and CEO 30 Chapter 11 Stakeholders and Corporate Social Responsibility 33 Appendix Board Evaluation Template 36 Corporate Governance Glossary 40 2 Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance Chapter 1 What is Corporate Governance By reading this chapter you should improve your understanding of corporate governance and board director’s responsibilities. You should be able to develop your competence required to implement responsible corporate governance practices in your company. “Sound Corporate Governance practices inspire investors and lenders confidence, spur domestic and foreign investment and improve corporate competitiveness. Key to this is well-informed boards and directors fully aware of their responsibilities and functions”. (Philip Armstrong, Head Global Corporate Governance forum) There are five elements of Corporate Governance • Good board practices • Transparent disclosure • Effective control processes • Well defined shareowner rights • Board commitment There are four Pillars of Corporate Governance. Let us describe what we mean by that. First Ac- countability. Make sure that management is accountable to the Board and ensure that the Board is accountable to shareholder/shareowners. Secondly we have Fairness meaning that we protect the shareowners’ rights and that we treat all owners including minorities equitably and provide effective readiness for violations. The third pillar is Transparency which means that we should ensure timely, accurate disclosure on all material, matters including the financial situation, performance, ownership and corporate governance. The fourth and final pillar is Responsibility. Recognize shareholders rights and encourage cooperation between the company and stakeholders in creating wealth, jobs and economic sustainability. OECD has formulated their principles in a similar way. Ensuring the basis for an effective corporate governance framework. Rights of shareowners and key ownership functions. Equitable treatment of share owners. Role of stakeholders in corporate governance. Disclosure and transparency. Board responsibilities. There are, however, competing tensions between shareowners vs. directors, shareowners vs. man- agers and directors of the Board vs. managers. Dividend vs. directors’ remuneration, mergers and acquisitions vs. director’s entrenchment and Management perks vs. dividends. Directors’ duty to promote overall company performance vs. managers’ obligation to their functional activity and staff could also be a conflict. Tensions may also arise between controlling/blockholding shareowners and minority shareholders. When legitimate interests of other stakeholders like employees, creditors, cli- ents, general public are ignored by the shareowners, conflicts may emerge. These competing tensions give rise to key governance problems which are dealt with by Corporate Governance. In Sweden we have had for many years a Company Act which regulates the responsibility for the Boards, the Managing Director and the Auditor on behalf of the shareowners. In our small country of 9 million inhabitants we have 900 000 companies, of which 330 000 are private limited companies, having 570 000 Board members. 60 000 of those private limited companies have active Boards of directors, in total 250 000 persons. On the stock markets we have only 400 public limited and listed companies with approximately 3 200 directors of the Boards. 100 % of public companies must have a managing director/CEO, while private companies are not forced. Anyhow 25 % of those have a CEO nevertheless. The big difference between the 600 000 private firms and the 330 000 limited companies is the responsibility for the owners. They only risk the share capital while the private ones risk everything as owners. The Swedish Company Act regulates the limited companies and forces them to obey the law for the benefit of the share owners, very much in line with the Corporate Governance philosophy. Raoul Hasselgren • Corporate Governance in Swenglish 3 Share Capital for public limited companies in Sweden according to the law is minimum 50 000 EURO and for private limited company only 5 000 EURO (minimum). The founders must publish Articles of Association – By-laws with information about Company Name, Place, Business, Share Capital, Number of shares, Board members, Shareholder meeting and Business year = Fiscal year. Another compulsory document is the Shareholder book with information about the shareholders’ rights and ownership. This book must always be available so that shareholders and stakeholders can read it. It must be kept 10 years after liquidation of the company. Public companies, planning to list on stock markets must publish information about the limited com- pany’s history, profitability, board of directors, management, owners and company value in a prospec- tus. It can take 3-6 months to be registered and the Board and the Auditor must sign the document. After approval by the stock market and registration they must keep the shareholders informed about anything that can affect the stock price and the market value of the company. For instance – acquisitions, divestments, new business, new investments, price- and currency changes, customer losses, quarterly reports, shareholders meeting and changes of the Board and top management. In addition to the Swedish Company Act there are some 40 other laws affecting the companies, the Board and the management, regarding taxes, environment, employees, competition and responsibility to stakeholders etc. In addition to legislation there are self-regulation. The Swedish Code of Corporate Governance applies to companies whose shares are traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Nas- daq/OMX and follow the principle “comply or explain”. The essence
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