The Wall Street Journal-20080114-Corporate Governance -A Special Report-- Editor-s Note
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Corporate Governance (A Special Report); Editor's Note
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE typically gets attention only under one condition: when there is an obvious lack of it. Maybe it's an options- backdating scandal, or a board that fails to monitor lavish personal spending by the CEO. Suddenly, papers are filled with tales of corporate governance gone awry.
But it's the little things -- the stuff that doesn't make the headlines -- that often define the difference between good and bad governance.
You can see that at play throughout this Journal Report. Kaja Whitehouse's cover story, for starters, isn't about CEOs who blatantly lie to directors. It's about CEOs who offer a too-rosy, glass-half- full view of the company -- and keep directors from really knowing what's going on. It's about making sure CEOs give their board the unvarnished truth.
Elsewhere, Judith Burns tells of the delicate task directors have in finding other directors to sit on their boards. And Erin White reports on the efforts by boards to improve direct communications with shareholders.
All small steps. But all crucial. And all designed to make sure governance stays where it belongs: out of the headlines.
