Getting my picture on the front of Rolling Stone.

This posting is not about getting my picture on the front of Rolling Stone, but the more mundane thought of having my picture or name somewhere inside some corporate annual report.  Taking that a step further the fact is that I likely have absolutely no chance of either ever occurring and that my readers is one reason why corporations are not liked by many people.

 

Let me explain. I have over 36 years of business experience. During those over three decades I have worked with small business extensively and know I have as good an understanding of how they operate and the daily problems with which they deal as anybody. I have operated a small business for a time as well.  I have worked in over a dozen different county business environments from growing to stagnant. Have been a member of and chaired several professional and civic boards and still currently sit on a few.  Finally I likely know as much about investing and corporate structure as anyone having been an active investor for over 32 years .

 

All that is not to blow up my resume, but to point out I believe I am qualified to sit on any corporate board most anywhere in the medium to small company range. To be honest I have actually applied and sent my resume to some just to see if they would consider me out of curiosity.  At this point not a single one has offered me to sit on their board. No one has even considered me for all I know.

 

Now it is not necessarily me that is not being offered to sit on these boards, it is many others in the general public who have even more qualifications to sit on these board who do not get invitations either. These boards make decisions about the business direction of companies, make decisions about corporate pay, and make decisions about issues where these companies interact with the public relations. Unfortunately for the most part almost no PUBLIC sits on these corporate boards. No one who actually lives and works in real public environments has any influence and say on these boards.

 

These same corporations wonder why they are so disliked by the public and this lack of public representation is a good reason why.  This frankly is the REAL reason why CEO pay is out of this world and make many in the public angry.  This is how companies make stupid marketing mistakes as well. You would think some of these corporations would actually want to avoid these PR problems. Truth be told corporate boards, both big and small corporations, are populated with friends, close business associates, and others who CEO's know will do their bidding.  Add in that many of these people who sit on corporate boards sits on several boards at one time as well. Actually many CEO's sit on each other's board. So we really have no real public oversight of corporations, and lots of "you take care of me I take care of you" relationships. There would seem to be room for some smart attorneys to take many boards to court over fiduciary responsibility, but maybe the legal side is in on the game too.

 

Let's add in here too that many government, semi-public, and educational boards have the same problem, but not to the extent that public corporation boards do however.

 

When doing research for my hedge fund I spend time reading many annual reports and  note who is on these boards and take into account such when deciding if the company has anything close to decent oversight. When I see decent oversight you will note I will say these boards are shareholder friendly.  Maybe I am wasting my time, but I fill out annual board voting and an selective about who I vote for and against.

 

Now back to the original point of this post, how about one or more of you people who pick corporate boards pick me for your board and make me a liar here. Since I do full exclosure I will note that too.  Besides I could use the income and perks:)