boardgovernance

In this episode, Lyndsey Zhang, shares with us her newly released book, The Surge – An Overview of China’s Rapidly Evolving Corporate Governance and Coming ESG Revolution!

Starting May 3rd, 2021, you can receive a 40% discount on the purchase of the Kindle version of the book on Amazon for a limited time.

Episode Highlights (with timestamps)

• Inspiration behind the writing of “The Surge” (2:14)

- Education background and experience working in both US and Chinese companies

•Titling the book "The Surge" (5:10)

•Who will be interested in this book (9:25)

- Global investors who are investing in China companies and interested in learning how to evaluate China companies’ CG risks (11:07)

- Corporate chairpersons, board directors and executives from multinational companies with connections in China (11:30)

- CG, ESG, law, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), management & strategy experts from international consulting firms (12:13)

- Business school professors and Master-level students in business, law, accounting, auditing, corporate secretary or similar programs (12:48)

- And anyone who’s interested in understanding Chinese companies CG models and China’s rapidly evolving ESG movement (13:23)

• Importance of understanding China’s corporate governance (14:00)

- Rapid evolution of Chinese companies 

- Industry leaders (15:26)

- Regulation system (17:12)

- Investing (19:13)

• How “The Surge” helps us understand China’s corporate governance (20:20)

- Unique approach of China’s economic reform

- Using case studies to understand the history and development of China’s corporate governance (22:27)

- Covid-19 crisis’ effect and new ways of thinking (23:06)

• ESG evolution in China (23:59)

- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

- Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

- Corporate Social Credit System (CSCS) (25:42)

• China’s corporate governance development and ESG next steps (27:48)

Order your copy of “The Surge” here: https://www.amazon.com/Surge-Overview-Corporate-Governance-Revolution/dp/1736867407

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Dr. Kwan Kew Lai, a Harvard Medical faculty physician, with a specialty in infectious diseases. She is a disaster relief medical volunteer who has volunteered her medical services all over the world.

The conversation of this episode focuses on the insights Dr. Lai will give us detailing the impact investment projects in Africa from a doctor’s experience.

Introduction and Overview:

- Dr. Lai’s “why” behind the volunteer work she does and why she chose Africa to concentrate her volunteer efforts (6:12)

- What Dr. Lai first thoughts were when she first visited Africa and saw first hand the hardships that her patients were facing (11:52)

- What encouraged Dr. Lai to risk her own safety to help others (15:39)

- What are the top challenges for volunteer doctors working in these countries: (20:31)

     - Infrastructure (20:48)

     - Lack of healthcare personnel (21:39)

Malawi:

- Dr. Lai’s mission in Malawi. Her experience with being selected for the program (23:09)

- Obstacles for her Malawi mission:

    - Infrastructure concerns (27:25)

     - Privacy concerns (30:13)

- Involvement of NGO’s and the local government (31:46)

     - How the turnover of medical staff affects the program (33:07)

     - Measurements involved in the Malawi program (35:00) 

Future:

- Future of the Malawi region healthcare system (41:19)

     - Lack of commitment by the government to support the program (41:37) 

- What incentives could be offered to reduce the turnover of medical staff (43:59)

- Challenges to overcome to make future programs successful (44:45)

     - Reducing turnover of staff and retaining new talent (44:45)

     - How changes in the year end evaluation could improve the program (45:31)

Guest Contact Information:

Dr. Kwan Kew Lai

New book: "Into Africa Out of Academia: A Doctor's Memoir"

Book debut: "Lest We Forget: A Doctor's Experience with Life and Death During the Ebola Outbreak"

kwankew@gmail.com

www.kwankewlai.com

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Professor Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of Governance and Strategic Leadership at Henley Business School in the UK, Emeritus Professor of International Management Development at Cranfield University’s School of Management.

Their conversation of this episode covers various hot topics regarding the Emerging Challenges for Corporate Boards and Board Chairs.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• Different interest groups represented by board members
  o Board is not a team, and should not work like a team (5:40)
  o Definition of Independence (6:00)
  o Various combination of interests in boardroom and the demand of un-comfortable decision-making capability of boards (7:10)
  o Why really matters? (8:40)
• Mis-alignments in boardroom
  o We need to respect mis-alignments. (9:20)
  o Top mis-alignments
   Competitive advantage and differentiation (10:10)
   The sense of sensitive issues and speaking up (12:20)
  o Board Chair’s role in facilitate board culture (14:00)
• How does the Chairman facilitate in the boardroom?
  o Lack of knowledge vs. lack of culture (15:30)
  o What is governance? (16:00)
  o The balance of Compliance vs. Stewardship (16:40)
  o Time to rethink the function of board (18:30)
• Line between board stewardship and management
  o Sharp lines between Board Chair and CEO (21:00)
  o Case study – best practice of collaboration between Board Chair and CEO (22:30)
  o There’s never a clean line – it’s the collaboration between Chair and CEO (24:00)
• How to recognize early risk sign identification?
  o Good board can sense uncomfortable situation 65 months ahead of time (26:00)
  o History of the origin of Board and Chair (28:00)
  o 30-year performance related Hero CEO period (30:00)
  o Back to the original role of board chair (31:00)
• New challenges for board Chair in the post COVID-19 Era
  o Technology and efficiency challenges (32:30)
  o Culture urgency accelerated by COVID-19 (34:30)
  o Remuneration and nomination issues in Corporate board (36:20)
  o Board chair can facilitate to address corporate culture and motivation to increase organization efficiency (38:00)
• What characteristics made good Board Chair?
  o How Chair and CEO develop themselves? (39:30)
  o One item missing on the risk register (40:30)
  o Core skills for Board Chair - Forensic capacity of scrutiny (41:08)
• Andrew’s most recent book: Leadership Intelligence: 5Qs For Thriving as A Leader
  o 5Qs For Thriving as A Leader (42:00)
  o The most important Q our of 5Qs - IQ in Action (43:10)
  o Important of RQ (Resilience Intelligence) (44:00)
  o Disappointment from the research is MQ (Moral Intelligence) (45:30)
  o IQ, PQ, RQ emerged (46:10)
• Closing remark – The ability to self-assessment of leadership value contribution:
  o Re-evaluation value contribution periodically (48:00)
  o The same value assessment applies to the entire board and management team (48:40)
  o The demand to address value contributions questions due to demand from shareholders and community (50:00)

Guest Contact Information

Professor Andrew Kakabadse

a.kakabadse@henley.ac.hk

Website : https://www.henley.ac.uk/people/andrew-kakabadse

Publications :

https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/andrew-kakabadse/1315722/

https://www.kakabadse.com/about-us

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Fedor Heijl, Chair of Vistage in Netherland. Board Chair of TechnoParts B.V.. and a family business trusted advisor.

This is the second part of Lyndsey and Fedor’s conversation. Topics of this episode are focused on the new governance model of family-owned business.

Conversation with Fedor Heijl Highlights

Vistage and Fedor’s role as Vistage Chair
o Passion of coaching and mentoring next generation (2:00)
o Value creation environment (6:00)

How does the Vistage advisory group operate and help members?
o Diversity of the advisory group (7:00)
o Case study (7:40)

Fedor’s passion of helping others?
o Passion of helping others (9:00)

Vistage Netherland
o Netherland culture plays in business (10:00)
o Stakeholder consideration in Netherland companies (11:00)
o Think global, act local! (18:00)

Family business mindset (12:30)

Three takeaway advice for family Business mindset (13:30)

Guest Contact Information

1. Contact info:
   Fedor Heijl MSc.
   fedor@fvice.nl
   linkedin.com/in/fedorheijl
   +31 6 55 13 80 79
2. Websites:
   www.fvice.nl
   www.vistage.nl
   www.vistage.com

Research shows that young professionals and people of color are encountering barriers that prevent them from moving into a leadership role on a nonprofit organization’s board of directors.

In this episode of Catalyst, Shawn Edwards, a FOX DBA alumna, and Maureen Cannon, program director of Fox Board Fellows, discuss how a nonprofit organization can open pathways for building a leadership team that more closely reflects the community it serves. They also explore ways to overcome the “gap of intentional engagement” and become involved in an organization that aligns with a person’s goals.

Find out more details at www.fox.temple.edu/catalyst. 

Key Links

• Shawn Edwards, PhD
• “Nonprofit Board Governance: Barriers to Millennial and Racial Minority Diversity in Board Service”
• Fox School of Business DBA
• Maureen Cannon
• https://www.fox.temple.edu/fox-board-fellows/
• https://www.fox.temple.edu/posts/2019/11/a-seat-at-a-nonprofit-table-leads-to-experiential-learning-for-fox-board-fellows/

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In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Marie-Josée Privyk, Head of ESG Innovation and Customer Success at Novisto Inc.. Marie-Josee is an extensive ESG Advisor to companies and investors with nearly 30 years of experience in capital markets.

Their conversation of this episode focuses on various topics on today’s ESG reporting and compliance standards, challenges for companies, and directions for future regulatory development and ESG reporting trends.

Conversation Highlights

Overall landscape of sustainable reporting today

• Fast growing and increasingly changing ESG reporting and compliance (6:00)
• Difference between Sustainable Reporting and ESG Reporting (9:40)

The top challenges for corporates for sustainability reporting

• Challenges on “What”  (11:20)
• Challenges on “How” (13:20)
• Challenges on “Improvement” (14:20)

Reporting Frameworks and Standards

• Two Main Standards (GRI and SASB) and their different focus (15:15)
• Frameworks - TCFD, a high level framework could apply to any sustainability (17:10)
• Frameworks - Integrated reporting framework – requires integrated thinking (18:00)

ESG reporting standards for corporate and for investors

• Parallel reporting standard but related (19:30)
• PRI Signatories for investors – more pressure on investor increase pressure to companies (20:20)

Why should companies improve ESG performance and reporting?

• Operating, risk mitigation, Lower cost of capital, enterprise value creation (23:00)
• ESG reporting pressure to private-owned or family-owned companies (25:00)
• Pressure from other stakeholders for companies’ ESG performance (26:20)

The direction of companies’ sustainable (ESG) reporting journey

• Fast-pace evolving, increasing clarity, increasing regulation (29:20)
• Company’s understanding about “Why” helps adopting the process (30:30)
• Requirement of collective efforts (31:30)

Regulatory development trend for different stage of companies

• Regulation difference is not necessary (33:00)
• Industry differentiation has two sides thoughts at the moment – a hybrid model might work better (34:30)

Best approach to build sustainable strategy

• Board and C-Suite role to understand ESG and its relationship to the company (36:30)
• Max ESG rating vs. underlying research information (38:30)

Doing it for real!

• Future forward looking – Digital revolution efficient ESG data collection and analysis (40:30)

Guest Contact Information

Marie-Josée Privyk

marie-josee.privyk@novisto.com

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Nawar Alsaadi, Acting-Chief Strategy & ESG Officer at Mark Labs. Nawar is a sustainable investment professional and experienced activist investor. He has been involved with a number of high-profile activist battles with TSX and NYSE listed companies on issues pertaining to corporate governance and corporate strategy.

The topic of this episode is about Nawar’s Material Engagement Strategy.

Conversation Highlights

• The motivation of Material Engagement strategy (2:20)
• The Missing Link (6:50)
• How to make engagement work? (12:00)
• How entities play their roles in Material Engagement strategy (16:00)
• The best way to make influence (21:00)
• How 3^rd party service agency helps for shareholder engagement? (25:00)
• How to align shareholders goals? (30:00)
• Collaboration with Mark Labs (35:00)

Guest Contact Information

Email: Nawaralsaadi@gmail.com

Publications

The Bull of Heaven -

Clock Zero: I am not my social feed

Website: https://engagementproject249624452.wordpress.com/

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Vivian Lin, partner and portfolio manager of William Blair’s China A-Shares Growth strategy and a global research analyst covering Chinese equities.

They continue the conversation by Vivian sharing her commendation regarding China investment opportunities by industry sectors and geographic locations.

Vivian then shared her opinion regarding Ant Group IPO incident and China regulation reform.

They close the conversation with discussion regarding Vivian’s view of China’s next 5-years plan and her investment strategy to reflect the upcoming changings of China economic focus according to the new 5-years plan.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

#007 Part 2:

• Tech / health / Consumer sector preference vs. geographic locations (1:30)
• Industrial sector preference
• Different tiers by geographic location
• Ant group IPO suspended (4:00)
  • Ant’s quick growth bridged China financial services GAP for SMEs
  • The reasons of Ant Group’s trouble with China regulators
  • Positive development of future online financial service for China companies
  • Ant is not just technology company, it’s a financial company
  • Higher standard regulation can only make the industry more sustainable
  • China regulation catch up on online gaming, online education and e-commerce
• China new 5-year plan (12:30)
• Enforce A-share investment
• Continuous Domestic consumption focus
• Next 5-10 year, more positive about China investment opportunity
• China Star Market is part of China IPO reform focus

Guest Contact Information

Vivian Lin

Email: linthurston@gmail.com

Publication:

Vivian’s blog site on William Blair:

https://active.williamblair.com/author/vivian-lin-thurston/

“Sustainable Trends Supporting China A-Shares”

“Three Themes in Emerging Markets”

“China Backdrop: Fundamentally and Technically Positive”

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Vivian Lin, partner and portfolio manager of William Blair’s China A-Shares Growth strategy and a global research analyst covering Chinese equities.

Their conversation starts with understanding the importance of China corporate governance for investor side. And the status of China corporate governance and ESG trend.

They then dive into China corporate governance key risks. Vivian shares how she handles these risks when she invests in China companies from selecting process and due diligence process.

They continue the conversation with China SOEs corporate governance. Vivian explains the different ownership of China SOEs. She reviews the key risk of China SOEs, and the societal contribution SOEs made to China society.

They closed the first part of the conversation by Vivian sharing her experience regarding things global investors do not know but should know about China SOEs. Vivian shares her experience working with China SOEs with professional management team, and her opinion regarding the importance of CEO compensation in China SOE reform.

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• China companies’ corporate governance so important to global investors? (2:30)
• Main CG risks of Chinese CG (7”00)
  • Equity share pledge and why it’s so prevalent in China?
  • Chinese market constrains – leading business is not market driven
  • What’s the break points of investment for China companies?
  • Accounting fraud issue of China companies and companies from other market
  • Investor due diligence key elements
• Different China state-owned enterprises (SOEs) (12:30)
  • Different ownership of SOEs in China
  • Central government owns traditional Industry (infrastructure, energy, material) – central government owned
  • Provincial, city level SOEs New economy (consumption, service, technology) – with more professional management team
• Specific Risk of China SOEs (17:00)
  • Some SOEs might have better CG structure due to government’s duty and intention
  • Minority investors influence to SOEs are limited - How to handle it?
• What western investors need to know about China SOEs (23:00)
  • Things investors do not like to see
  • What good SOEs in China look like with professional management team?
  • CEO Compensation in China SOEs – SOEs reform focus

Guest Contact Information

Vivian Lin

Email: linthurston@gmail.com

Publication:

Vivian’s blog site on William Blair:

https://active.williamblair.com/author/vivian-lin-thurston/

“Sustainable Trends Supporting China A-Shares”

“Three Themes in Emerging Markets”

“China Backdrop: Fundamentally and Technically Positive”