Episode Details

Nicholas Benes: "We Need to Redesign the Corporation to Provide Better Incentives"

Episode 11 Published 5 years, 10 months ago

Start of interview [1:40]
Nick's "origin story", from New Jersey to California to Japan [3:33]
His first board experience with Alps Mapping ('00-'06) [7:34]
Why he founded the Board Director Training Institute of Japan in 2009 [12:40]
His WSJ article on "Japan's Coming Shareholder Revolution" (2001) [19:42]
Japan's keiretsu system ("a defensive cross-shareholding wall") [21:04]
The historical resistance against having independent directors in Japan companies [23:25]
The effect of the ACCJ's white paper that led to Japan's Stewardship Code (2014) and Corporate Governance Code (2015) [24:40]
Why Japan needed a corporate governance code (to enhance corporate disclosure) [32:20]
Japan's change in board composition (now one third are independent directors) [34:52]
His take on executive pay, particularly around the approval of "Say-on-Pay" in the US and distinctions with exec comp in Japan [36:51]
His take on ESG and "stakeholder capitalism" [39:50]
Nick's opinion of dual class share structures: "I dislike them vehemently, I think they make a mockery of the concept of shareholder democracy" [45:34]
Nick's recent proposal: "Redesigning corporations: Incentives Matter" (published in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance) [47:50]
The use of blockchain technology to track beneficial share ownership [57:17]
How to find Nicholas Benes online:
1. Website: https://bdti.or.jp/en/
2. Email: info@bdti.or.jp
3. Twitter: @benesjp

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