9 in 10 Emails are Spam Says Cisco Annual Security Report
December 17, 2008
Each year, Cisco publishes its annual security report. This year’s report tells us that 90% (or nearly 200 billion) of all the email messages sent each day are spam. Next time your leadership comes to you and asks you to put together a marketing or branding email campaign, and you tell them to invest in measures to ensure your email is not diverted to recipients’ spam folders, but to save money, they say no, show them this report. Every step you can take to ensure your email messages get to the recipients’ inboxes are essential to your campaign’s overall success.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of creating a successful email campaign isn’t getting people to open your message and follow your call to action, but making sure they get to see it sitting in their inboxes. Even the most compelling title for your email doesn’t help if consumers never see it. At the very least, an email authentication program is critical. While not full-proof, it certainly increases the chances for your email to make it to its final destination correctly. Read more
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Governance Visualization — An OCEG Masterpiece
December 16, 2008
In one of my posts I wrote about a standout Corporate Governance organization Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG). Another post covered Corporate Governance Visualization, the use of graphics to convey and explain Governance matters. I’d like to combine the two themes.
Corporate Eye has received permission to link to OCEG’s seminal visual on Corporate Governance. Think of it as “everything you wanted to see about Governance.” This is a landmark effort and visually shows all Corporate Governance practices and stakeholders, and all relationships and linkages.
You may access the visual here.
You will need to register for free subscription: well worth it you will get access to the visual and more. Also don’t worry about e-mails, OCEG respects your privacy.
For those who have an interest in Corporate Governance, OCEG and the visual is a must.
The Minimalist Approach to IR Websites
December 15, 2008
Mies van der Rohe, one of the founders of modern architecture, famously said, “less is more”. I have now found an investor relations website that attempts, unsuccessfully, to put this into practice.
Kroger, a U. S. supermarket chain, has an investor relations section that consists of four pages. The initial page contains a table with quarterly high and low stock prices and six facts about the company: number of employees, number of shareholders, shares outstanding this year, shares outstanding last year, stock ticker and exchange it is listed on.
That’s it, nothing else, which makes it kind of difficult to form any sort of investment opinion about them.
I thought that was minimalist, but the next page takes it a step further. Their FAQ page lists exactly six questions that they deem important enough to list. On the third page, the effort to supply useful information about the company is not better. You want a report about the company? Your first default is that the company sends you off to the SEC Edgar database. You want to see the company’s annual report? You have to dig through 73 pages of a proxy statement before you get to the most recent annual report. No indexes, no tabs - you’re on your own if you want to find helpful data.
Finally, the webcasts page lists a link to a single upcoming event - no archive of past presentations, nothing to give you much context.
Oh well, I’ve never been much of a fan of modern architecture anyway. In this case I think more would be more.
Kroger has evidently decided one of two things: 1.) They are only going to provide the minimum amount of information they possibly can, or 2.) Let all those pesky investors go somewhere else to find the information. After all, there’s a whole world wide web of information out there. In either case, they are effectively driving investors away. That can’t be good for their stock price.
Consumers Trust Corporate Blogs Least of All
December 15, 2008
A new report from Forrester Research, tells us that only 16% of online consumers trust corporate blogs, putting corporate blogs at the bottom of the trust scale, lower even than personal blogs.
That’s not good. However, it definitely reinforces what bloggers already knew but corporate executives have trouble believing - blogs that simply regurgitate corporate rhetoric are useless. So what’s a company to do? How do you create a corporate blog that’s actually useful?
There are a number of companies that have launched successful corporate blogs, but they’ve done it by listening to consumers. Companies like Dell and Apple have turned their blogs into customer service portals and places where real conversations take place. Rather than simply speaking at consumers through their corporate blogs, Dell, GM and Apple have embraced the main purpose of blogging by creating a communications device that speaks with consumers, values customer opinions, listens to customers and responds to them. Rather than simply delivering marketing messages, the information on these blogs is useful and helpful to consumers. Read more
The Equator Principles : A Brief Overview
December 12, 2008
Anyone remember spot the ball competitions? A strange photo of football action had the ball removed and you had to place an X where you thought the ball was. The winner won something, possibly cash.
Talking about business sustainability without mentioning money is a bit like a spot the ball competition. You know it’s there, an essential part of what’s going on, but spotting it can be very difficult indeed.
This is where the Equator Principles (EP) come in; a set of benchmarks put together to bring a sense of sustainability to business financing.
Governance of the Principles
The initiative was created in 2003 by the leading banks of the day, including Barclays, Citibank and ABN Amro. It uses the policies of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as its foundation.
They apply to all projects which financial institutions may engage in with financing of over $10m. This includes both direct lending by the banks and financial consultancy.
In addition, the working groups which govern the principles are not wholly focussed upon the banks. They include representatives of NGOs, Socially Responsible Investment analysts and the banks’ client base.
Inevitably this means that the banks and their clients complain that the principles go too far while the NGOs complain that they don’t go far enough.
This is good and it is heartening to see both sides engaging with one another and feeling able to air their views freely.
The Equator Principles Themselves
There are Ten Principles. Any institution signing up to them commits to ensuring any project it is involved in with a spend of over $10m will conform to these principles.
They are relatively simple and straightforward and define the standards, management systems, consultations and monitoring which the bank should require of the client.
These provide a clear pathway for any institution wishing to improve the sustainability of its activities. These steps are underpinned by policies from the IFC and World Bank which provide the real meat.
For instance, the principles embrace both the IFC’s Eight Performance Standards on Sustainability, ranging from Cultural Heritage to Pollution, and the World Bank’s 41 industry specific Environment, Health and Safety guidelines.
Transparency and The Equator Principles
When the EP was first launched there was one major criticism which was levelled at it: transparency. Much like the UN Global Compact, in it had placed more emphasis on signing up institutions than on monitoring their commitment.
To try and rectify this, the principles were updated in 2006 to include a tenth principle to which requires institutions to report at least once a year upon their activities under the principles.
As a minimum this requires banks to report the number of projects they have been involved in. The associated guidance notes encourage institutions to break the information down further, for instance by country or sector.
Detailed figures, such as those provided by ABN Amro, give a tiny glimpse into which projects a bank has been involved in. However this should be only the start if the banks’ disclosures.
For example: what about the bank’s governance? Is the EP included as a standard part of staff training, as appropriate? How will a bank monitor EP compliance and how will it censure a client if they fall out of compliance?
The Equator Principles Should Lead Finance Sustainability
There is no doubt that the EP acts as a force for good within the banking industry.
In the past year its membership has grown by nearly 20%, includes a quarter of the top investment banks in the world and has recently embraced Industrial Bank Co, one of the largest banks in China.
However, having a ball is only the first part of a good game of football. The rest of the sport is made up of robust rules and regulations to ensure one side or another isn’t unduly favoured.
If the quality of the benchmark’s disclosure requirements isn’t improved the EP could encourage accusations of being a vehicle for greenwashers.
This would be a shame because finance is undoubtedly modern society’s main driver. As such the EP should be a leader, not a follower, in ensuring a sustainable economy is built.
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