Final Paper Barnes And Nobles

Submitted By yinshiyuwudi
Words: 1667
Pages: 7
Open Document
Barnes and Nobles board is failing in multiple regards. They have not effectively overseen the company, they have not had succession plans in place for the departure of directors, and have not established term limits for their directors. Barnes and Nobles is currently on the midst of its fourth straight year of losses, with no end in sight. Analysts predict that “Barnes and Nobles may not last in its current form by the end of 2015.1” Leonard Riggio Founder, chairman and largest shareholder has been apart of this company since 1972. His company has most recently been investigated by the SEC for the restatement of its financial statements for 2010, 2011 and 2012. William Dillard chairman of the Compensation committee has been on the board for over 21 years. Patricia Higgins has been on the board for 8 straight years, and has been on the Barnes and Nobles.com board from 1999 to 2004. The three directors mentioned have also been sued before and accused of not being independent. In 2009 Barnes and Nobles was sued for allowing the Chairman to purchase Barnes and Nobles Colleges for an amount much larger than a third-party would offer. Leonard Riggio successfully argued that Dillard and Higgins are independent of the company in this lawsuit. However, now that several years have passed it seems evident that these two board members have been on the board too long. Additionally, there are two board members who are on the audit and compensation committees which is a conflict of interest. In 2013 there was a six month period where Barnes and Nobles did not have a CEO. These events, clearly show that Barnes and Nobles board has not been providing effective oversight, and have not provided the shareholders the best return possible.

The present CEO is Michael Huseby who used to be the president of the Nook Division. At the current moment, there is not enough information to say if Huseby is doing a good job.
This is not the first time, Barnes and Nobles has hired the president of the Nook Division as CEO. In March 2010 they hired William Lynch who led the company to three straight years of losses and resigned in July 2013. Barnes and Nobles should have had a plan in place to replace senior executives and board members. The first issue of Corporate Governance that needs to be addressed at Barnes and Nobles is the committee structure. Currently there are several governance issues in relation to the current structure of the governance committees. The first issue is the conflict of interest that exists between the Audit and Compensation committees. There are two board members that are current sitting on both the Audit and Compensation committees, as stated on investopedia, “It is important to check if the members of the compensation board are also on the compensation committees of other firms because of the potential conflict of interest2”, this is a conflict of interest due to the nature of the topic that each committee oversees. It is best practice to have these two committees completely independent of one another and it is a failure of the governance and nominating committee who created the overlap between these two committees. In order to solve this issue the governance committees need to be re structured in a way that creates more independence and allow for better decisions at the board level. The nominating committee needs to look back at the original background information gathered about each board member looking at experience, strength, and their other time commitments to determine who will be the best member to sit on each committee. The nominating committee cannot just look back at past information due to the long length of terms that members have been sitting on the board, it is important that an updated resume be obtained. This updated resume needs to be looked at to determine whether or not they still have an appropriate time commitment to sit on multiple committees and also to see where their best fit will
Show More

Related Documents: Final Paper Barnes And Nobles

How to Quote Essay

Troyka warns us of the particular challenges of using quotations in research papers: “The greatest risk you take when you use quotations is that you will end up with choppy, incoherent sentences” (184). Use a signal phrase followed by a comma or a signal verb followed by that to announce a quotation. Example According to Lynn Quitman Troyka, The narrator tells us that “Lucille was out of her mind” (34). As Jake Barnes says, Frye rejects this notion when he argues, Integrate the quotation…

Words 640 - Pages 3

Mark Twain Essay

Zimmer 1 Patrick Zimmer Ms. Barnes English 3H November 11, 2014 Mark Twain Biography and Literary Criticism Mark Twain is a man who has seen it all and done it all. He lived in Missouri, Iowa, Louisiana, California, Connecticut and even Germany. Twain has doctorate degrees at three different universities despite quitting school at age twelve. He worked as an editor, a river boat captain, and a gold panner to name a few. Twain was also a journalist and a lecturer. However, Mark Twa…

Words 2207 - Pages 9

Assignment 5 Capstone Essay

Assignment 5: Capstone Lucille M. Holden March 14, 2013 BUS 499 Dr. Claudette Andrea Strayer University Introduction In this capstone assignment, I will discuss Starbuck’s. I will determine the impact of the company’s mission, vision, and primary stakeholders’ overall success. An analyzitation will be performed to identify the five forces of competition and their impact on the company. I will perform a SWOT analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats…

Words 3172 - Pages 13

Policy Essay

Policy Brief Families are often faced with a range of different, complex health and psychosocial problems. Place-based approaches aim to address these complex problems by focusing on the social and physical environment of a community and on better integrated and more accessible service systems, rather than focusing principally on the problems faced by individuals. A place-based approach targets an entire community and aims to address issues that exist at the neighbourhood level, such as poor housing…

Words 4332 - Pages 18

Industry Analysis: the Five Forces Essay

Purdue extension EC-722 Industry Analysis: The Five Forces Cole Ehmke, Joan Fulton, and Jay Akridge Department of Agricultural Economics Kathleen Erickson, Erickson Communications Sally Linton Department of Food Science Overview Assessing Your Marketplace The economic structure of an industry is not an accident. Its complexities are the result of long-term social trends and economic forces. But its effects on you as a business manager are immediate because it determines the competitive…

Words 6827 - Pages 28

MKTG 3101 Notes Essay

MKTG3010 – Notes for Test 2 Blue= skipped slides ** = focus on for test CH 8: Products, Services and Brands What is a product? -product= anything that can be offered to a marketer for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need -**can be tangible goods (ex- soap, toothpaste, coffee, cars) -**can be intangible services = form of product that consists of activities, benefits, or satisfactions offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result…

Words 6640 - Pages 27

What Is E-Store Loyalty

its consequences have been considered extensively. Store loyalty, in particular e-store loyalty, has not, however, received the same level of attention despite the increase in the number of organisations that sell directly over the Internet. This paper focuses on two antecedents of e-store loyalty, perceived switching barriers and satisfaction, and the way in which they interact. It found that customers do not consider themselves loyal to the e-store they frequent despite being largely satisfied…

Words 8811 - Pages 36

Managing Information Technology (7th Edition) Essay

CONTENTS: CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 1 Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A): The Role of the Operating Manager in Information Systems CASE STUDY I-1 IMT Custom Machine Company, Inc.: Selection of an Information Technology Platform CASE STUDY I-2 VoIP2.biz, Inc.: Deciding on the Next Steps for a VoIP Supplier CASE STUDY I-3 The VoIP Adoption at Butler University CASE STUDY I-4 Supporting Mobile Health Clinics: The Children’s Health Fund of New York City CASE STUDY I-5…

Words 239873 - Pages 960