Conference Review

• Author: Keith Gay
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8683.00153
• Date: 01 July 1999
• Published date: 01 July 1999

Conference Review

Keith Gay

The Conference had three aims :

1. to bring together practitioners, academics

and consultants in corporate governance

and direction,

2. to provide a platform for leading thinkers,

investors and practitioners who were

shaping this emerging field,

3. to provide opportunities for research

papers to be prepared for publication in

leading journals and possibly in a book.

Professor Bernard Taylor (Henley) suggested

that, during the Conference, participants

might like to reflect on a number of issues

which are preoccupying boards of directors

and policy-makers in government and regu-

latory bodies :

.The UK/US Model of Corporate Governance:

how far could it be used and what were

its limitations in Europe, Japan, Russia and

South East Asia?

.The Scope for Re-regulation in financial

markets and public utilities.

.How to make Boards more dynamic: how

could directors and boards be changed so

that they added value to their businesses?

.Holding Boards accountable to Shareholders

and other Stakeholders: reforming the AGM

and the Annual Report and the involve-

ment of institutional shareholders.

.Researching best practice: how did the best

boards operate?

.What about other Boards? The need to

improve the governance of SMEs, public-

sector and non-profit organisations.

Book Note

A practical guide to corporate governance; Richard Smerdon; Sweet and Maxwell,

London, 1998

As the title suggests this is a practical guide to corporate governance for practitioners

in the UK. Following the Hampel Report and the London Stock Exchange principles of

good governance and code of best practice (which are included as appendices), the

book outlines the corporate regulatory regime in Britain, discusses board structures,

the work of directors, directors' remuneration, board meetings, the annual report and

AGM, governance aspects of financial reporting, the auditor and the audit committee,

governance and the company secretary, insider dealing, investor relations, and insti-

tutional investors and voting. The style is descriptive and explanatory. It is entirely un-

critical, taking the various reports and codes as a given. There are no references to any of

the major works in corporate governance and no international comparisons. This work

will be useful to company secretaries of UK companies wanting clear information on

governance requirements.

CONFERENCE REVIEW 229

#Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999 Volume 7 Number 3 July 1999