You’ve probably heard of a mysterious “board of directors” that hangs out at the top of the food chain in organizations, colleges, and companies of all stripes and colors. The board of directors are the heavyweights that meet secretly behind doors (okay, not really secretly, but they might as well be) to make decisions affecting the company or organization.
Well, a directorate is basically just finance-speak for “board of directors.” Directorates are a common organizational force in public companies, where shareholders vote on board members, who then call the shots.
Directorates can also be found in the government, like the U.S. Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Directorates bring some democratic-ness to organizations and companies, sort of...those who hold the money (the shareholders) hold the keys to who gets to be on the mysterious board of directors. But that’s just how politics rolls, whether in government or out of it.
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Finance: What are Interlocking Directora...14 Views
Finance a la shmoop what are interlocking directorates? got global
corporate Skull and Bones conspiracy theory on the brain well you'll need it [Man holding skull and bones conspiracy theory]
when you think about this one an interlocking Directorate happens when a
number of companies share directors so that each company is you know business
friendly with the other the heyday of interlocking directorates was the
Rockefeller era when the former wealthiest man in the world wanted to [John Rockefeller appears]
control more or less everything in and around discovery, drilling, storage,
distribution and banking in and around Big Oil
so the Rockefeller interlocking Directorate of say nine white men on
each board and yes in those days they were all white and men well three of
them on this board overseeing the rockefeller holdings in drilling would
also be on the board of well his company holdings in oil storage and
these other three who sat on his oil storage board would also sit on his
train plane and automobile distribution businesses well the boards are
interlocked to be sure that each of the vertically integrated monopolies played
nice with each other and you know kept the monopoly party going ooh and the [Board members playing monopoly]
party did rage on for a very long time interlocking directorates got a lot of
grief in the U.S at the time yes they did and that's noteworthy because well
in Japan and Korea and Russia and other countries which make big products like
cars and washing machines and cell phones that are competitive with the big [Kids playing sack race]
US companies well they're interlocking directorates are the normal way of doing
business you know the norm if gravity still
exists well over time those interlocking directorates carry a structural
advantage over the US system because they can rely on each other for supply
and for demand they can plan many many years into the future and they can elbow
out any would-be competition who might be there with huge heft in government [Man performs karate move on another man]
help in the U.S it's kind of the opposite it's more like every company
for him or herself so there's no cooperation there and the government
it's more the enemy half the time than your business partner
well interlocking directorates are not necessarily evil they're just a [Man with horns appears]
component of a globally competitive industry where the structure of company
ownership needs to reflect the basic concept that each share of common stock
could and should carry one vote so now that you understand interlocking
directorates we can finally get back to the question of who killed Kennedy this
guy sure doesn't have an alibi [Big foot walking in a misty forest]
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