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• Business podcast: May 12th

  May 12, 2011 @ 7:30 am | by John Collins

  Dominic Coyle and Barry O’Halloran discuss the Government’s jobs initiative, Cian Blackwell from Grant Thornton on corporate governance and Maeve Kneafsey on the IIA annual conference.

   

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• Drumm struggled to balance household budget

  February 15, 2011 @ 12:54 pm | by John Collins

  

  Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm outside the federal court in Boston in 2010

  So David Drumm ran a €72 billion loan book while chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank but wasn’t able to get a handle on his personal finances? (more…)

• Rate my board. Do your directors have the X-factor

  January 21, 2011 @ 12:30 pm | by John Collins

  Shareholders in public companies get the chance once a year to pass verdict on directors. But in the case of Irish-quoted companies small shareholders can rarely if ever do more than lodge a protest vote. The support of the institutional shareholders, who hold the bulk of the shares, has generally been secured well in advance of the AGM.

  Given some of the high profile and costly lapses in corporate governance at companies of all sizes in recent years the new Board Performance Evaluation Service from the Institute of Directors in Ireland (IoD Ireland) is a welcome introduction.

  Eight months in development the service combines online tools with in-person interviews from experienced independent assesors. Aimed at organisations of all types and size it evaluates the board’s performance in areas such as strategy, business principles, risk management and internal control, performance and measurement, stakeholder management, board composition and boardroom practice. At the end of the process IoD Ireland delivers a report to the company making recommendations on actions that are required.

  “Good corporate governance makes good business sense,” Maura Quinn, chief executive of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, told my colleague Ciara O’Brien yesterday. “It shouldn’t be based on regulation, or because someone might be looking over you shoulder. This is good business.”