Corporate Governance Lessons from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Fifty years old and I still haven’t kicked the habit of the end-of-summer book report. Sad really.

 

I must admit I didn’t think that Steig Larsson’s first thriller would provide food for NACD thought, but listen up all you private company directors, nomination and governance chairs worried about CEO succession, and anyone concerned with boardroom ethics and director independence. This book review is for you.

Several things are well known about the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo author, Steig Larsson:

• He died before his trilogy of crime stories became best sellers.
•  He was Swedish.
•  He was a former journalist who was expert in covering right-wing extremism.

It is not known how much he knew or cared about fiduciary responsibility or the governance practices of the best-run family businesses, and midway through the book it becomes obvious that the corporation and the magazine company around which most of the action is set, have not based their governance practices on the NACD Key Agreed Principles. Sure, both are private (not public) companies and being based in the frozen north of Sweden and in Stockholm respectively, are not bound by U.S. law. Nonetheless, the conditions under which old man Vanger joins the magazine company board, and the threats subsequently made to the company co-founders, would raise the eyebrows of anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the Duty of Loyalty. Transparency is not a core value and self-interest rules the day.

The Vanger family who run the company—and, indeed, the community at the heart of the book—would benefit from attending the family business session at this year’s NACD conference. As usual, the session will be facilitated by Jack Moore, a member of the Benjamin Moore Paint family and well-seasoned in helping directors and executives of family-run companies deal with some very sensitive interpersonal issues. Jack will be joined by Linda Thomas, the CEO of Wilcox Farms, an egg distribution company based in the Pacific Northwest. Chris Wilcox, one of the family members now involved with running the 100-year-old egg farm, will be there too. This will be textbook—not crime thriller—corporate governance, but the panel have promised some lively stories even if they can’t manage mystery and intrigue. Don’t miss it.

Later in Larsson’s novel (and I must be careful not to give away the plot) there are serious questions about who should lead the Vanger empire, although the old man is still very much alive at the end of the story. It all comes out all right in the end, but there’s no doubt that their succession planning and executive evaluation process was sadly lacking. The company counsel, Frode, is pretty much a good guy throughout, but really questions must be asked about the board process and how he allowed it to become so compromised. HealthSouth director and law professor Charles Elson, Heidrick and Struggles’ Bonnie Gwin, and Peter Wiley, chairman and former CEO of Wiley and Sons, will discuss C-suite succession planning at the NACD Conference. Join them to find out how it should be done.

 

And if a girl with a dragon tattoo offers to invest in your latest venture, give her a wide berth. I have reason to believe her fortune was not made honestly.