Executive Insight

Philadelphia Area - Charity Golf Tournament at Commonwealth National Golf Club, May 13.

Founded in 1982, Special Equestrians is a non-profit therapeutic riding program serving children and adults with disabilities in the Philadelphia area. Set on more than 40 preserved acres in Warrington Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a state-of-the-art facility features 28 stalls, indoor and outdoor arenas, families and volunteer’s lounges, conference space, a therapy room, and administrative offices. The Sensory Trail is a special feature of the grounds, offering interactive experiences for horse and rider.

More information, schedule and sponsorship opportunities:

Download 2013 Special Equestrians golf tournament

What Shareholders Should Know about CEO Succession Plans, and Why.

A copy of my presentation yesterday at the 2013 Activist Investor Conference in New York City.

 

What shareholders should know about ceo succession plans, and why. from Charlesmore Partners International

Released: Fortune Magazine’s Best Companies to Work For, 2013

The list of good employers on Fortune’s prestigious annual list stays consistent this year with Google retaining the top spot and just a couple of newcomers to the top 10.

Rank	Company	Job Growth	# of Employees
1	Google, Inc.	N.A.	53,546
2	SAS	5.6%	6,373
3	CHG Healthcare Services	4.7%	1,378
4	The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.	18.6%	2,314
5	Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.	8.3%	43,927
6	NetApp	7.8%	7,426
7	Hilcorp Energy Company	47.7%	1,012
8	Edward Jones	-0.9%	35,114
9	Ultimate Software	18.7%	1,440
10	Camden Property Trust	13%	1,896

See Full List

Source: CNNMoney

The Activist Investor Conference 2013

The Latest on Activist Campaigns, Corporate Defenses, Legal & Regulatory Issues

The Activist Investor Conference is an annual gathering of the most important group of activist investors, corporate governance specialists, advisory firms, proxy solicitors, and corporate board members. The agenda features a full day of technical education on the latest activist investment strategies, their impact on corporate performance, legal and regulatory changes, and studies of effective proxy campaigns and successful corporate defenses.

Conference Topics

• The Activist Toolkit: What Methods are Activists Using to Successfully Influence Reforms
• The Impact of Governance and Activist Investing on Equity Returns
• The Current Proxy Activism Landscape
• Proxy Fights in Canada: Activism North of the Border
• Different Types of Activism: Operational, Boardroom, Governance and Takeover Activism
• Successful Public Relations Strategies for Activism Campaigns
• When to Use a Vote No / Withhold Campaign
• How to Determine When a Company is an Attractive Target for an Activism Campaign
• Negotiating the Proxy Contest Settlement Agreement
• Successful Strategies for Engaging with the Board and Management
• What Shareholders Should Know about CEO Succession Plans
• Changing Trends in Corporate Governance: Elections and Advisory Votes
• The New Breed of Activist Investors: What is their Impact on Policy, Governance and Executive Pay?
• Multi-Constituency Directors and Issues Surrounding Shareholder Representation on the Board
• The SEC's latest requirements for 13D filings
• Activism in Closed-End Funds
• Examining Advance Notification Bylaws

Agenda

Register

Venue

W New York - Union Square
201 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 253-9119

In the heart of Silicon Alley, where cutting edge technology and international business thrives, stands W New York - Union Square. Step outside and head in any direction, and within walking distance you will find the very best of New York waiting for you.

A limited number of discounted rooms have been reserved for conference attendees. Book your room early because after the room block sells out the special rate may not be available. Click here to book your room online or call The W Hotel directly at (212) 253-9119 and mention "The Activist Investor Conference."

Education to Employment: Designing a System That Works

• Globally, seventy-five million youth are unemployed and young people are three times more likely than their parents to be out of work.
• Half of youth are not sure that their postsecondary education has improved their chances of finding a job
• Only 43 percent of employers can find enough skilled entry-level workers and estimates suggest that by 2020 there will be a global shortfall of 85 million high- and middle-skilled workers

Around the world, governments and businesses face a conundrum: high levels of youth unemployment and a shortage of job seekers with critical skills. How can a country successfully move its young people from education to employment? What are the challenges? Which interventions work? How can these be scaled up? These are the crucial questions.

A new report from McKinsey attempts to answer them. To do so, it developed two unique fact bases. The first is an analysis of more than 100 education-to-employment initiatives from 25 countries, selected on the basis of their innovation and effectiveness. The second is a survey of youth, education providers, and employers in nine countries that are diverse in geography and socioeconomic context: Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The report’s findings include the following six highlights:

• Employers, education providers, and youth live in parallel universes – or to put it another way, they have fundamentally different understandings of the same situation.
• The education-to-employment journey is fraught with obstacles - not least of which are cost, work relevancy and job access.
• The education-to-employment system fails for most employers and young people – positive outcomes are the exception rather than the rule.
• Innovative and effective programs around the world have important elements in common – most particularly when education providers and employers step into each others’ worlds.
• Creating a successful education-to-employment system requires new incentives and structures – distributed information, collaborative endeavor and systems integration.
• Education-to-employment solutions need to scale up – leveraging interactive technologies and employer-valuable curricula.

McKinsey started this research recognizing the twin crises of a shortage of jobs and a shortage of skills. In the course of it, though, it realized the need to take into account another key shortage: the lack of hard data. This deficiency makes it difficult to even begin to understand which skills are required for employment, what practices are the most promising in training youth to become productive citizens and employees, and how to identify the programs that do this best.

The authors conclude, “The journey from education to employment is a complicated one, and it is natural that there will be different routes. But too many young people are getting lost along the way”.

Read the report

Source: McKinsey Center for Government

Ostrich or Eagle? The Stark Choice Facing Organizational Leaders

Peter Drucker was once asked about the accuracy of predictions.

“I don’t predict,” he responded, “I look out of the window and identify what is most visible, but not yet seen.”

In 1987 the Hudson Institute published its seminal report, Workforce 2000. Ten years later it reprised the analysis with the publication of Workforce 2020. In between several important Harvard Business Review articles covered similar ground, though taking more of a global view. By the end of the decade, McKinsey’s War for Talent was capturing considerable executive attention.

Each took a long-term view of the confluence of societal trends, demographics, education sector deficiencies, globalization, technological advances and workforce supply & demand. Each warned advanced-economy government, business, labor and education leaders that, absent the collaborative development of fresh solutions, trouble lay ahead. In parallel, business thought-leaders like Peter Senge, Meg Wheatley, Charles Handy and Gary Hamel were challenging conventional wisdom and urging that new realities required fresh thinking.

The rest is history.

Fast forward to 2012. Several substantive and insightful new reports have been published this year that center on contemporary and impending global labor market discontinuities. They all cover somewhat related ground from different vantage points and paint a picture of the present that is quite consistent with that of the earlier forecasts. Importantly, each warns leaders in both advanced - and now also in developing economies - of the considerable economic and societal consequences of failing to act to solve the challenges ahead:

• Help Wanted: The Future of Work in Advanced Economies, The McKinsey Institute, March 2012
• Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives - A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies, OECD, May 2012
• The World at Work – Jobs, Pay and Skills for 3.5 Billion People, The McKinsey Institute, June 2012
• False Summit – The State of Human Capital 2012, The Conference Board and McKinsey & Company, October 2012

This 2012 body of work is serious stuff. Its antecedents were serious too, but in the end issue-avoidance and short-term-ism - regretfully – brought the future home to roost.

Here’s the rub. Unless we pay attention and do something proactively to respond to these dynamics, organizations will increasingly struggle and competitiveness will continue to erode.  Form will follow function, we know this. The pivotal question is who will be ostriches and eagles this time around?

Clearly, we have a Point of View. We hope that executives earnestly examine the strategic implications of these forces and build out strategies and capabilities to future-proof their enterprise.

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Charlesmore Partners International specializes in organizational strategy. We have a track-record of building high performance organizations and experientially-developed methodologies that help organizations get ready for the future.

More information:  +1 215.353.6472 or connect@charlesmore.com.

Frameworks Can Limit Our Mindset

An inspiring Tedx talk by Nilofer Merchant on inclusivity. Important insights on choices, inclusion and value creation.

As they say, never mistake the edge of the rut for the horizon.

More: NiloferMerchant.com

The Most “Civic” of America’s Large Companies

IBM, Citi, and AT&T, Inc. take top honors in the first comprehensive ranking of S&P 500 companies that best use their time, talent and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. The Civic 50 was prepared by The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) and Points of Light, national experts on civic engagement in partnership with Bloomberg LP. It features a comprehensive, transparent methodology to identify companies that have taken a leadership role in developing and implementing civic engagement programs. The list is intended to raise awareness of the importance of a civic consciousness through the U.S. corporate world.

Companies were evaluated on seven specific metrics: leadership, measurement and strategy, design, employee civic growth, community partnerships, cause alignment and transparency. Winning companies employed increasingly sophisticated tools to measure the impact of community engagement and alignment of these programs with their business’ core competencies. More than two-thirds of the top 50 companies say they “frequently” or “always” use the professional skills of their workforce to address social issues and real community challenges. Sixty-six percent of the top 50 say they have “mission-level” alignment with the community partners, meaning they work with them on the highest strategic level, not just on individual programs or events.

The companies recognized in the inaugural Civic 50 contributed a remarkable amount of time and resources to improve the communities they serve. For example, the top five companies alone provide $1.5 billion in grant support to community organizations, 17.5 million volunteer hours valued at over $375 million, and $150 million in matching donations.

The full list of winners can be found online at Businessweek.com. Here are the top ten:

1. IBM
2. Citigroup
3. AT&T Inc.
4. Aetna
5. Capital One Financial Corporation
6. Morgan Stanley
7. Campbell Soup Company
8. The McGraw-Hill Companies
9. General Electric
10. Hasbro, Inc.

Source: The National Conference on Citizenship

The State of Human Capital

A new report by The Conference Board and McKinsey & Company concludes that human capital professionals are struggling to meet the needs of an-ever changing global business landscape. Specifically, as global markets and technology evolve, “people processes are failing to keep pace”. The authors go on to report that “while tremendous strides have been made over the past decade in areas like workplace diversity and flexibility, the human capital function has largely lagged behind in effecting organizational success. As a consequence, human capital leaders must work harder — and smarter — to cement their place as a key business partner on decisions central to the present and future success of their organizations”.

The State of Human Capital 2012 report examines four specific opportunities that HC executives must seize if they are to effectively manage the global talent pool in an unpredictable business environment. These include:

1. Look ahead: anticipate and plan for the human capital of tomorrow– From the increased presence of the highly connected millennial generation to the proliferation of the virtual office, tomorrow’s workplace will look very different from today’s.
2. Secure a steady, reliable pipeline for today’s skilled workers, and tomorrow’s leaders – The war for talent continues, spurred by relatively high growth in emerging markets and the mismatch between worker skills and jobs in most regions of the world.
3. Develop strategies to reenergize your employees about what they do, and about what the organization stands for – An engaged workforce can drive financial performance. Studies have shown that employees who are truly engaged are more likely to stay and contribute to the organization.
4. Ensure that the HR/HC function becomes more agile than the organization as a whole – Organizational agility is an essential response to the volatility of today’s business environment. An MIT study shows that agile organizations grow revenue 37 percent faster and generate 30 percent higher profits than non-agile organizations.

With many human capital departments today paralyzed in the face of seemingly monumental challenges — such as accelerating leadership development, acquiring talent, and retaining  key players  in a world of constant change across borders, cultures and challenges — the report offers a way forward.   Based on a survey of hundreds of practitioners as well as focus groups with senior leaders in human capital around the world, the report offers an overview of the current state of the human capital function, key strategies and approaches executives can implement immediately to reach the summit.

Source: The Conference Board, McKinsey & Company

Download the report

Strengthening the Global Leadership Pipeline

By 2030 more than one-half of the world’s GDP will be generated in what are currently classified as “emerging markets.”

In a new study of its membership base, CEB (previously the Corporate Executive Board) examined the leadership challenge of this intensifying reconfiguration of the global business marketplace. It found that 60% of its member companies plan on significantly increasing their global footprint during the next three years but that a lack of globally capable leaders was likely to become a significant impediment to growth and sustaining success.

In the study CEB analyzed the business performance of more than 12,000 senior global leaders at 90 companies and discovered a striking difference between businesses with what it termed “Great Global Leaders”—those who can successfully operate across multiple and diverse geographies—and those without. It reports that Great Global Leaders are almost three times more likely than their peers to be guiding a business that is achieving its performance objectives three years in a row. “Unfortunately, Great Global Leaders are rare, as fewer than one in five senior leaders in the organizations surveyed qualify as Great Global Leaders. Without an adequate pipeline of effective global leaders, most organizations will struggle to be successful—and many will ultimately fail,” the study concludes.

We are told that “understandably” organizations are rethinking, retooling, and (in some cases) reinventing their leadership development programs to create more and better leaders. Yet the review of organizations’ strategies for strengthening their global leader pipeline shows that most approaches are “deeply flawed”. CEB report that some organizations “mistakenly” assume global leadership is the same as other forms of leadership and produce leaders who lack the special skills required for cross-market management. “Others make the opposite mistake”—assuming global leadership is an entirely unique set of skills and capabilities— “producing leaders with profiles inconsistent with the organization’s overall leadership needs.” The survey found that the best companies build Great Global Leaders by striking a balance between these two extremes—identifying, improving, and building leaders’ important core skills and capabilities while also enabling them to be more effective in complex global environments.

Key findings include:

• Many great leaders do not want global roles. CEB finds that only 35% of successful global leaders aspired to be in global roles. Global leadership roles may be unattractive to many leaders for two reasons. First, the link between most global assignments and the long-term career opportunities for leaders is frequently unclear. Second, the relocation, travel, and personal disruption costs of taking on global roles are often significant deterrents, especially for rising leaders.
• Executives should challenge the long-held assumption that to be successful, leaders need to live in the markets they manage. A review of leader performance shows that relocation is not always necessary for success.
• With global leaders likely having responsibility for individuals and teams over which they lack direct authority, the leader’s success or failure often hinges on his or her ability to work through others. A leader’s capacity to influence—being a compelling force or producing effects on the actions, behavior, and opinions of others— increases the probability that someone is a Great Global Leader by 27%.
• Being a successful global leader does not require increasing time spent working; rather, it requires working in a different way. Great Global Leaders spend more time networking with two important groups—clients and peers.

Read the report

Source: CEB