FEI Weekly

October 9, 2019

Board gigs get harder to hold, there's no accounting for oil and dealing with the therapy generation.

So Much for That Cushy Board Seat

Broadridge

478 public-company directors failed to win the support of a majority of voted shares this year, up 39% from 2015, according to a new report. A total of 1,726 directors failed to secure support from at least 70% of voted shares. When directors lost shareholder support, it reflected a lack of confidence of institutional investors rather than individual shareholders, the analysis found. Also, members of board nominating and governance committees were most often targeted.

“Therapy Generation” Out of the Office

Business Insider

About half of millennials and 75% of Gen Zers have left a job because of mental health reasons, a study conducted by Mind Share Partners, SAP, and Qualtrics. That was significantly higher than the overall percentage of respondents who said they had left a job for mental-health reasons, 20%. This indicates a "generational shift in awareness," said the authors of the report, That shift is no surprise, considering that millennials have also become known as "the therapy generation."

Cost Management Revolution

Knowledge@Wharton

Companies thought cost management was about reducing expenses, but has evolved as a way to manage costs while also driving growth. Now, cost management is advancing further. Business leaders see it as a strategic initiative that is part of a larger transformation process. Authors of a new study discuss their research on how cost management is changing globally in the digital age.

It’s The Profits, Stupid

DealBook

Young tech companies fueled by a wave of venture capital-funded excess encouraged fast growth above all else. But now some investors and start-ups are beginning to rethink that mantra and instead invoke turning a profit and generating “positive unit economics” as their new priority.

Big Oil’s Big Accounting Problem

Reuters

There are many voluntary initiatives and frameworks to unify carbon accounting and target setting; some overlap but none have been universally adopted that it is difficult to assess the risk of holding energy shares as the world shifts away from fossil fuels. “Disclosure is not necessarily so we can seek to change the numbers, but so we can start understanding and pricing the risks,” says an investor.