Corporate Governance: Ethics and Strategy

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="3a1fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Eclicktick Consulting</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eclicktick Consulting"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="3a2d2b03.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>Download "Strategy and Ethics: How strategy, ethics and fiduciary responsibilities are all connected</U></A><A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>" </U></A><A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>article in Adobe Acrobat pdf form.</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="24e9ed30.jpg" border=0 width="158" height="211" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="books.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eclicktick Recommended Books"><U>Recommended Business and Technology Books</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Corporate Governance: Ethics and Strategy</I></div> <bR> <div> Good strategy should be based upon good ethics. And if you are an investor or a board of directors member, you need to pay attention to both. The good news is that research on strategy and ethical behavior suggests that the two are linked.</div> <bR> <div> Eclicktick can help your organization define the key strategic drivers in your business that you need to pay attention to. The rationale behind the need to measure and report more information about your strategy is laid out in the article below.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>Download "Strategy and Ethics: How strategy, ethics and fiduciary responsibilities are all connected" article in Adobe Acrobat pdf form.</U></A></div> <bR> <div> Many investors are not aware of the tools and frameworks that are available for analysing companies.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Proxy and Governance Evaluation</I></div> <div> Traditional suppliers of governance ratings and evaluations have tended to focus upon easy to rate issues such as policies for appointing boards or independence of the chairman, but Eclicktick believes that the requisite analysis needs to go deeper into the operations of a firm. Eclicktick's founder, Alistair Davidson built the first expert system for assessing strategic and competitive positions in 1985-6 and has been a thought leader in the field of strategic and competitive analysis ever since. We can assist you in making sure that your analysis of the investee firm is appropriate and help you establish a set of request for improving transparency of performance.</div> <bR> <div> Eclicktick can also assist investment companies in <B>evaluating proxy decisions </B>and putting in place<B> policies and procedures</B> to comply with new SEC requirements. Eclicktick can provide a state of the art strategic judgment based upon a wealth of practical, industry and academic experience in evaluating important decisions. Given the high cost of making an informed proxy decision, working with Eclicktick which can service multiple funds can reduce your cost of decision making by as much as 90%.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Please contact Alistair Davidson at 650-322-8880 or </I><A HREF="mailto: alistair@eclicktick.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: alistair@eclicktick.com"><U><I>alistair@eclicktick.com</I></U></A><I> for details</I>.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>Download "Strategy and Ethics: </U></A><A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>How strategy, ethics and fiduciary responsibilities are all connected</U></A><A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>" </U></A><A HREF="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.eclicktick.com/StrategyEthics"><U>article in Adobe Acrobat pdf form.</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Background</B></div> <div> The recent spate of corporate fraud, directorial incompetence and the stock market bubble demonstrate the running a public company is destined to be more complex.</div> <bR> <div> Changes in legislation and public pressure demand that boards of directors and professional money managers at mutual funds and pension funds need to change their approach to investment supervision.</div> <bR> <div> A key regulatory change (<A HREF="http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/33-8131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/33-813"><U>http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/33-8131.htm</U></A>) is the recent decision by the SEC to require investment firms such as mutual funds to report on their exercise of the fiduciary responsibilities in voting proxies. They are required to not only to disclose such information, but also to have in place polices and procedures for evaluating and voting on decisions.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Proxy Voting Transparency - a new SEC requirement</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Disclosure of Proxy Voting Policies and Proxy Voting Records by Registered Management Investment Companies</B></div> <div> <B>Securities and Exchange Commission</B></div> <div> 17 CFR Parts 239, 249, and 274</div> <div> [Release Nos. 33-8131, 34-46518, IC-25739; File No. S7-36-02]</div> <div> RIN 3235-AI64</div> <div> Disclosure of Proxy Voting Policies and Proxy Voting Records by Registered Management Investment Companies</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Summary</B>: The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing amendments to its forms under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Investment Company Act of 1940 to require registered management investment companies to provide disclosure about how they vote proxies relating to portfolio securities they hold. Under the proposed amendments, registered management investment companies would be required to disclose the policies and procedures that they use to determine how to vote proxies relating to portfolio securities. The proposals also would require registered management investment companies to file with the Commission and to make available to their shareholders the specific proxy votes that they cast in shareholder meetings of issuers of portfolio securities. </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.calpers.ca.gov/invest/policies/pdfs/Representation-on-Corporate-Boards-of-Directors.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.calpers.ca.gov/invest/policie"><U>Link to CalPERS policies</U></A> on responsibilities of Board of Directors</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.calpers.ca.gov/invest/policies/pdfs/GlobalProxyVotingPrinciples.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.calpers.ca.gov/invest/policie"><U>Link to Calpers global proxy voting principles</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.domini.com/common/pdf/ProxyVotingGuide2002.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.domini.com/common/pdf/ProxyVo"><U>Link to Domini proxy voting guidelines</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>   <script> var page_name = ''; var invisible = ''; function sE(){return true;}window.onError=sE;var lp=0; function clr(){lp++;if(lp==1){document.ctr.src="http://64.49.222.57/0.gif";} else {clearTimeout(myT);return true;}} var myT=setTimeout('clr()',120000);var rn=Math.random(); document.write('<a href="http://www.web-stat.com/stats.shtml?alistairdavidson"'); document.write(' target="new"><img name="ctr"'); document.write(' src="http://www.web-stat.com/count.cgi?'); document.write('alistairdavidson::'+top.document.referrer); if (window.screen){ document.write('::'+screen.width+'x'+screen.height+'::'); document.write(screen.colorDepth+'::'+page_name+'::'+invisible+'::'+rn); }else{document.write('::::::page_name::'+invisible+'::'+rn);} document.write('" onError="clr();" onAbort="clr();"'); document.write(' onLoad="clearTimeout(myT);"'); document.write('border=0 alt="Web-Stat hit counter"></a>'); </script><noscript> <a href="http://www.web-stat.com/stats.shtml?alistairdavidson" target="new"> <img src="http://www.web-stat.com/count.cgi?alistairdavidson::NoJavaScript" border=0> </a> </noscript>   </div> </td> </tr></table></body>