Communicating Intangible Sources of Value

Among them: Snow Charles , Miles Raymond and Coleman Henry Jr. , ‘Managing 21st Century Organizations’, Organizational Dynamics, Winter 1992; and Howle Edith , Neilson Gary and Ortiz David , ‘Creating Temporary Organizations for Lasting Change’, Strategy and Business, 4th Quarter 1996.

Hammer Michael and Champy James , Reengineering the Corporation, Harper Business: New York, 1993.

Drucker Peter (1993), Post-Capitalist Society, Harper Business, New York.

Consider the Turnbull corporate governance code in the UK, which demands that company directors, as a condition of listing, personally account for risk controls or explain why they could not.

It was David Ogilvie, founder of Oglivie & Mather, who remarked that 50 per cent of all advertising was a waste, you just couldn't say which 50 per cent.

In his book Trust, Francis Fukuyama argues that it is a characteristic of Western capitalist societies that they enjoy a high level of trust. This trust enabled the creation of joint stock companies and is in contrast to the family controlled companies that dominate ‘low-trust’ societies like China and Korea but also Italy and to some extent France. Trust is published by The Free Press, New York, 1995.

Regulation FD came into force on October 23, 2000. It requires companies to issue news releases, inform the SEC itself or release on its website any unintentional disclosures of material information. The use of audio and video on the Internet is also encouraged as a way of ensuring that all the proceedings are available for inspection by all shareholders. The SEC ruling can be viewed at http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-7881.htm.

RAW Communications operates one such network, using Internet protocol and multicast but in a secure configuration with broadband connectivity to overcome the limitations of the Internet for audiovisual communications. Some investment banks have installed video-conferencing facilities with limited archive functionality, and major information vendors including Reuters and Bloomberg have worked in the video field without actually addressing shareholder communication in a direct way. Other vendors offer extensive webcasting services and attempt to overcome the obstacles to distribution over corporate networks. The technology is developing rapidly, but there is no single solution to all the communication needs.

It may be worth noting that in the UK such board meetings are, strictly speaking, outside Company Law, which in keeping with its Victorian origins requires that directors are physically present for the meeting. This anomaly is addressed in the current consultative process for a sweeping revision of Company Law.

The phrase was coined during the Watergate scandal, when it was discovered that President Nixon had routinely taped all conversations in the Oval Office. See also the section Issues for the future.