Running an Online Affiliate Program
Not all affiliate marketing programs are successful. In today’s world we need a robust, well thought out strategy to ensure that the affiliate marketing program is both successful as well as scalable. Affiliate marketing is no longer on the fringe. Instead it is a core sales channel which has tangible and visible effects on any […]
Broadcast Advertising – Radio, Television and Internet
Generally speaking, broadcast advertising is radio, television, and Internet advertising. The commercials aired on radio and televisions are an essential part of broadcast advertising. The broadcast media like radio and television reaches a wider audience as opposed to the print media. The radio and television commercials fall under the category of mass marketing as the […]
Food Retailing: Indian Perspective
Food Retailing in India is witnessing a progressive change with the emergence of the hypermarkets/supermarkets and rapid expansion of organized retail sector in India across various parts of the country. With the world’s second-largest population and rising composition of Middle-Income group, India has emerged as the world’s most attractive retailing destinations especially in the Food […]
Consultative Selling Process
Consultative selling has been the new buzz word doing rounds in marketing and sales circles. Lawyers and consultants have always been selling their services by consulting. However, this has now been recognized as an important attitude and orientation that every salesman, all business managers and organizations need to possess. Organizations for long have realized the […]
Maintaining and Measuring Service Quality
After having attained the desired service level, the next great challenge faced by service providers is to maintain service standards at levels of excellence. This is as important, and as tough, as establishing service standards and attaining to them in the first place. There are basically two approaches that any organization can have towards maintaining […]
With the explosion of scandals pertaining to corporates due to mismanagement and fraud in recent years, the regulators all over the world have been implementing a series of policies aimed at improving corporate governance and ensuring that companies follow ethical and normative rules of business. A part of this initiative has been to goad the companies to nominate a certain percentage of their board to persons who are not affiliated to the company. These are the so-called independent directors who sit on the boards of companies in a purely professional manner without having a hand in the day to day running or other activities of the company.
The point about the independent directors is that they are drawn from a pool of professional who have had wide industry experience and are qualified to sit on the boards of the companies. What makes this process appealing to the regulators is that these independent directors can bring the much needed perspective that is objective and balanced since they are not connected to the company nor its management and hence do not have hidden agendas.
In India, SEBI and the Corporate Affairs Ministry have decreed that between 10-15 percent of the composition of the board must be made up of independent directors. This move is aimed to bring in more objectivity to the art of corporate governance and introduce transparency and accountability from the directors who are drawn from the ranks of the management. This rule has been enforced given the spate of corporate scandals like Satyam where the top management itself indulged in fraud and dubious business practices. So, the line of thinking goes that bringing in independent directors would usher in greater oversight over the functioning of these companies. Since the Satyam Scandal was because of the board looking the other way when its founder was indulging in defrauding the company, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is implementing this rule to introduce greater oversight.
In the US, independent directors have been known to bring in a fresh perspective as well as check the runaway business behavior dictated by profits and personal benefit. In many companies in the US, the independent directors are the ones who often thwart the management from taking decisions that are based on personal benefit as opposed to the interests of the shareholders. Further, independent directors are tasked with investigating cases of corporate malfeasance and unethical behavior because of their supposed objectivity. However, there have been instances where the independent directors themselves acquiesced in the wrongdoings of the companies and their boards. The solution to this has been the initiative to make the independent directors responsible for the actions of the board so that they have a stake in ensuring that the board does not tread on the wrong side.
Finally, independent directors also bring in the much needed professional expertise since they are individuals with wide experience in running companies as well as the fact that they sit on the boards of other companies which means that they are abreast of the latest happenings. There has been a move by the regulators in many countries to ensure that independent directors do not have conflicts of interest and these have been codified into rules governing how many companies they can associate themselves with and the sectors and industries that they represent.
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