High Performance Boards, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 31Boards and Investors

There is a trend toward increasing engagement and advocacy by shareholders who expect to have greater access to boards. This has been accentuated by greater technology-enabled exchanges of information between boards and shareholders.

The impact of the transforming shareholder role has been felt on many fronts, including in the form of institutional shareholder-led initiatives regarding the composition of boards. There have also been regulatory changes in response to shareholder demands. These include ‘say-on-pay’ rules, where investors vote on executive compensation, as well as a requirement that shareholders approve dilutive transactions. Demands for shareholder engagement are likely to continue to intensify.

Information Design and Capital Raising: Crowdfunding

The proliferation of new approaches to raising capital has resulted in higher quality and transparency of information available to investors. From private equity to crowdfunding, the ‘closed-shop’ way of interacting on investment decisions is becoming a thing of the past. Instead, accurate and timely – often real-time – information is made available, thus delivering on the promise of digital technology. It has had a powerful effect on levelling the playing field between institutional and private investors, as well as between active and potential investors.

The Oculus VR is a virtual-reality headset that puts players into their favourite games. With over US$2 million raised in 30 days ...