Corporate Governance

February 2026

• Feb 24, 2026ConceptsCorporate Governance Explained for Non-ExpertsGovernance is the architecture of accountability: who decides, who oversees, and how power gets checked. The article walks through board duties, fiduciary duty, audit, pay design and the shareholder versus stakeholder debate, with Theranos, Boeing and Carillion as failure cases. Bebchuk, Cohen and Ferrell's Entrenchment Index study of over 1,800 firms found each one-point rise associated with roughly 6 to 7 percent lower Tobin's Q.21 MIN28.2k

September 2022

• Sep 28, 2022ConceptsWhat Is the Principal-Agent Problem and Why It MattersDelegation, divergent interests and information asymmetry together mean an agent can serve themselves at the principal's expense without anyone acting in bad faith. Graham, Harvey and Rajgopal surveyed over 400 executives and found 78% would sacrifice long-term economic value to meet short-term earnings targets. Jensen and Meckling called the total cost monitoring plus bonding plus the residual loss that survives both.20 MIN12.3k

August 2022

• Aug 5, 2022ConceptsWhat Is Stakeholder Theory: Business Beyond ShareholdersFreeman's 1984 argument was both moral and strategic: a company cannot last by serving shareholders alone. The 2019 Business Roundtable statement, signed by 181 CEOs, dropped shareholder primacy as the governing purpose and listed shareholders last of five commitments. Bebchuk and Tallarita then found signatories behaved no differently from non-signatories, and most had not taken the statement to their own boards before signing.20 MIN11.8k