Introducing Growth and Value Creation in a Corporate Governance model

Although early investors and founders in Facebook are necessarily happy with their investment, it is not the case of those investors having joined the company at the occasion of the IPO.

Corporate Governance advocates had somehow predicted the result, as they had argued its governance structure (multiple voting shares allocated to founders and a few others so that they controlled much more than their investment stipulated) did not guarantee shareholder value creation would be a priority. The Corporate Governance model they advocate for focuses in managerial control mechanisms, as the agency problem between investors and stakeholders, versus founders and early investors, needs to be tackled.

Nevertheless, others justify this governance structure: the autocratic system helps founders of high potential growth companies to focus on long-term sustainable growth, while rejecting short-term pressure by equity markets.

Regulation after the late 2000s crisis tried to fight short-termism, introducing shareholder engagement, (thus the two dimension model, managerial control and long-term commitment). But engagement is somehow still limited to voting the shares, and the rational behavior is following proxy advisors, that are not enough to help long-term behavior. Trading differentiated taxes, voting right allocation rules in favor of long-term investors and so on, are nowadays in the political agenda.

But, how can those opposite strengths –short and long-term perspectives- be more efficiently reconciled?

A new Corporate Governance model with a focus on growth and value creation, (the third dimension), is proposed by McCahery, Vermeulen, and Hisatake, in their article “The Present and Future of Corporate Governance: Re-Examining the Role of the Board of Directors and Investor Relations in Listed Companies”.

How does the model work in practice, what is the dynamics?

The point is: shareholder value and stakeholder satisfaction comes from growth and innovation potential, (instead of coming from oversight or long-term investor commitment).

Board dynamics and composition. There are several steps followed by successful companies:

–         First funds come from family, friends, and fools, that do not generally have access to the board.

–         Secondly, angel investors and venture capital funds appear, and they typically have access to the board. They are usually beneficial for growth, for their industry experience, and their strategic involvement, and understanding of value drivers.

–         Third, after an IPO, the model accepts the dual-class share governance structure, as something connected to innovation and value creation in that kind of company, and thinks of the board as not only responsible for oversight functions, but more relevantly for experienced advice for strategy, value creation and growth. That leaves room for boards full of industry experts, familiar to the Ceo or not, but deeply involved in the company`s growth strategy. On the other hand, this model is not confronted to independence, diversity, Chairman-Ceo separation, and other standard composition rules.

The relevance of Investor relations.

The authors advocate for a strong communication and investor relations strategy, so that investors and other stakeholders clearly understand the competitive advantage their corporate governance structure provides, and why it separates from certain general “one-fits-all” recommendations. Investors need to understand how this structure promotes revenue generation and stakeholder satisfaction.

Above all, these companies need to be transparent and engage in information sharing regarding their innovation and growth prospects.