From Boardspan this Week:
The Not-So-Secrets to Success: Board & CEO Collaboration
Navigating hard times requires strong trust, communication, and collaboration between the board and the CEO. This week, Boardspan and our partner Teneo team up to provide our extensive expertise on cementing this symbiotic partnership.
"A CEO needs a board to share wisdom, serve as thought partners and provide objective oversight. The board, while providing ultimate accountability, very much needs the CEO as the primary leader and responsible party for success. The company’s success depends on a partnership rooted in collaboration and shared responsibilities…How do the board and the CEO establish a healthy, high-functioning relationship? We have worked with hundreds of boards and recently talked to some of the most experienced people in our networks. Here’s what they had to say…” BOARDSPAN BLOG
Across the Board
Musk Back in Court for Tesla Tweets
In federal court testimony, Elon Musk defended his 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private, saying that he only wanted to keep shareholders informed. Investors claim those tweets cost them billions of dollars.
“Elon Musk testified in federal court Tuesday that he tweeted about potentially taking Tesla Inc. private in 2018 to share his thinking with shareholders and that he intended to convey that funding wouldn’t be an issue… Investors say they lost billions of dollars because of the tweets. ‘Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,’ Mr. Musk, then serving as both Tesla’s chairman and CEO, tweeted on Aug. 7, 2018. He later added, ‘Investor support is confirmed.’” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Elliott Management Targets a Troubled Salesforce’s Board
Amid a reduction of 10% of its workforce, Salesforce receives a large investment from activist investor Elliott Management in a bid to get board representation. Elliott's previous targets for adding board representation are PayPal, AT&T, Dell and Pinterest.
“Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has made a multibillion-dollar investment in Salesforce Inc… Elliott, one of the biggest and most prolific activists, often seeks board representation and pushes for companies to make operational improvements and other changes…This isn’t the first time lately that Salesforce has drawn activist interest. In October, Starboard Value LP revealed it had taken a stake in Salesforce, arguing that the company’s mix of growth and profitability is far below that of its peers.” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Women on Boards Navigating the “Warmth-Competence” Line
Harvard Business Review looks at the fine line women on boards still have to walk today.
“In total, we interviewed 43 current women directors of U.S. publicly traded companies between 2018 and 2019. Our findings indicate that unless these women monitored how and when they spoke, they perceived backlash from other directors. This backlash included being labeled as cold or incompetent, which lessened their ability to influence board decision-making processes…Gender-based barriers remain at play in the boardroom, creating additional work for women directors who must walk the fine line between displaying warmth and competence.” HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Antitrust Suit: Google Controls the Digital Advertising Market
A Justice Department lawsuit is calling for Google to break up its advertising business, accusing the tech giant of illegally monopolizing digital ads and quickly eliminating any advertising competitors.
“Google’s anticompetitive behavior has raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged,” the Justice Department alleges…As Bloomberg notes, the lawsuit represents the Biden administration’s first significant attempt to challenge the power of one of the nation’s largest tech firms.” YAHOO
