Warren Buffett Has Some Interesting Views On Boards And Corporate Governance
Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
Warren Buffett is on CNBC this morning.And the top topic of conversation (after a quick discussion of low interest rates) is corporate governance.
Buffett has been in the spotlight lately because he didn't vote against a pay package at Coca-Cola that was widely deemed excessive.
Buffett's view: He doesn't have any interest in going to "war" against Coke (which he's owned for a long time) but he does want to apply pressure in other areas, and he expressed his disagreement with the package on other ways.
As he puts it, a boardmember only has so many "bullets" and if you make a habit of voting against everything you don't like, people stop listening to you.
He also made an interesting point about boards being inherently "social" entities, with directors who don't want to bother other people so they can get jobs elsewhere.