Governance and Risk
An Analytical Handbook for Investors, Managers, Directors & Stakeholders — Featuring Standard & Poor's Corporate Governance Scoring Methodology
by George Dallas (ed.)
Hardcover, 608 pages
McGraw-Hill (January 2004)
ISBN: 0071429549
About the Book
Effective corporate governance has long been viewed as essential for healthy capital markets. Careless and corrupt governance practices, however, have thrust the governance debate from the shadows to the forefront, and corporate governance can now be recognized as a stand-alone risk factor. Many market participants now question whether true self-governance is possible or even realistic in today's era of razor-thin profit margins and bloated executive paychecks.
Highly publicized collapses in governance have replaced calm and complacency with vigilance and even stridence, often obscuring valuable and necessary aspects of governance that are long overdue for discussion and review.
Governance and Risk presents a balanced and rational approach to one of today's most emotional topics, and outlines an analytical model for both evaluating the governance practices of individual corporations and protecting yourself or your organization from the effects of incomplete, inaccurate, and potentially misguiding practices.
Some Highlights of the Book
Governance and Risk provides both a solid conceptual grounding on the principal themes of governance in today's global corporate arena and a solid framework for understanding and benchmarking risks related to a company's governance policies and practices. Straightforward and authoritative, with compelling insights into today's key micro (internal) and macro (external) corporate governance issues, this all-encompassing book...
- Provides a wide-ranging discussion of methodologies and criteria relating to corporate governance analysis.
- Brings together diverse country environments in a common analytical framework.
- Seamlessly links up-to-date conceptual and theoretical thinking about governance to practical performance issues.
- Explores broader themes of governance — sustainable development, directors and officers insurance, behavioral aspects, and approaches to governance in managed funds and governments.
Of this book, J. Mark Mobius, President of Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, has written: "I have found Governance and Risk to be one of the most comprehensive surveys of the field. It is an excellent reference work."
About the Author
George S. Dallas is Managing Director and Global Practice Leader for Corporate Governance at Standard & Poor's. Based in London, Mr. Dallas has led S&P's global corporate governance initiative since the late 1990s, and has been actively involved in developing an analytical approach to corporate governance in mature and emerging markets around the world. He is also actively engaged with Standard & Poor's wider enhanced analytics initiative — linking corporate governance evaluations more formally to the credit rating process.
Prior to this assignment, Mr. Dallas was head of Global Emerging Markets for Standard & Poor's. He also has served as regional head for S&P's Ratings Services in Europe and has been head of S&P's London office and practice leader of the company's international corporate ratings group. He joined Standard & Poor's as an analyst in 1983, prior to which he was a corporate lending officer at Wells Fargo Bank.
Besides editing Governance and Risk, Mr. Dallas has written several book chapters as well as numerous articles for professional journals, including an article for AHC Group's eleventh issue of Corporate Strategy Today, entitled "Better Governance: To Avoid Risks or to Create Value?"