Board of the Year Awards
reinforce good corporate governance
By Jon Fernquest |
The Thai Institute of Directors Association (IOD) named the recipients of the Board of the Year Awards for 2006-07 yesterday.
Nineteen companies were named this year, versus twelve last year. All of the companies were listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET):
Among the recipients this year, Bangdhchak Petroleum (BCP), CS Loxinfo (CSL), Krung Thai Bank (KTB), PTT (PTT) and Tisco Bank (TISCO) secured the Board of the Year for Exemplary Practices.The other 14, which took home the Board of the Year for Distinctive Practices, are Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services (BAFS), Banpu (BANPU), Bangkok Bank (BBL), Bangkok Expressway (BECL), Electricity Generating (EGCO), The Erawan Group (ERAWAN), Kiatnakin Bank (KK), PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Se-Education (SE-ED), Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), Thai Reinsurance (THRE) and Thai Oil (TOP).
On top of that, four companies - EGCO, PTT, SCB and TISCO - have been cited for having boards with Consistent Best Practices for three periods, in 2002, 2004-05 and 2006-07.
Having many companies qualify for the reward rather than just one seems like it would provide more of an incentive to companies to improve board practices.
PTT certainly stands out from the rest since this Friday the 14th the announcement of the court decision in the PTT privatisation case will be made.
The award started in 2002 and is sponsored by seven reputable organisations: the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD), the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Board of Trade, the Thai Bankers Association, the Thai Listed Companies Association, the Federation of Thai Industries and the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations.
The award was based on six criteria: board policy, board performance, board structure, board style, board meetings and board members. The goal of the award was also to identify and correct weaknesses in corporate governance.
For further reading and study, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has publications on corporate governance (link) and a special section of the their library devoted to books on corporate governance.
The Thai Institute of Directors Association (IOD) makes their publications available on their website (See IOD publications). (Source: Bangkok Post, Business, 12-12-07, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
board of directors - the group of people elected by the stock shareholders of a corporation to oversee the operation of a corporation at a very high level (See Wikipedia)
director - a member of a company's board of directors
corporate governance - the policies and procedures used by a board of directors in overseeing the operations of a company (See Wikipedia)
recipients - people who receive something
listed company - stock of the company publicly traded on the stock exchange
secured - get something
exemplary - is a good example that should be followed
took home - receive (the prize and take it home)
on top of that - in addition to that
distinctive - has a special quality that makes it different from the others (and easy to recognize)
cited for x - it was mentioned that they had feature x
consistent - always behaving in the same way, reliable
best practices - the most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people (See Wikipedia)
provide an incentive for - provide an award for doing something
stands out from the rest - distinct (see above)
privatisation - turning a public government run company into a privately owned and run company
sponsored by - people who support with money or some other way
reputable - have a good reputation, people look up to and respect
criteria - the factors or things you look at when judging and making a decision
identify - discover, recognize, notice that something exists, distinguish from others
