摩根大通吉米?戴蒙:什么時候必須公開CEO的健康狀況
????上周二,摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)董事長兼首席執行官吉米?戴蒙告知公司員工及股東,他已被診斷出患有可治愈的喉癌,而且預后效果非常好。 ????雖然診斷結果顯示戴蒙的生命看來沒有受到威脅,但人們仍然要問,誰會接替他執掌摩根大通。此外,戴蒙的聲明還帶來了一個更大的問題,那就是對于CEO的健康狀況,人們到底應該了解哪些信息。 ????美國總統定期接受體檢,而且每隔幾年都會公布體檢結果(美國總統奧巴馬6月份剛剛進行了體檢,醫生的結論是他很健康,原因是他“每天都運動,不抽煙,偶爾適度飲酒。”)企業負責人往往牢固地跟本公司的財務表現聯系在一起,他們是否也該這樣做呢? ????摩根大通發言人上周三告訴《財富》(Fortune)雜志,公司從未要求戴蒙定期體檢。不過,一位接近戴蒙的人士告訴我們,他確實定期體檢,原因是戴蒙“很關心自己的健康,而且經常跟妻子兒女一起打網球、跑步”。 ????獵頭公司Korn Ferry副董事長丹尼斯?凱里指出,這是摩根大通的情況,各公司在這方面的做法當然各不相同。Korn Ferry曾牽頭為3M、美國電話電報公司(AT&T)和歐迪辦公(Office Depot)等公司規劃CEO招聘和繼任事務。 ????人們都知道,各家公司都會為CEO購買所謂的“關鍵人物”保險,投保金額根據高管對公司的貢獻決定,目的是防止這些高層人員身故導致公司陷入財務困境。ABD Insurance and Financial Services執行副總裁基思?馬丁森指出,簽訂保險合同前,一般都會要求企業負責人披露所有的健康風險。而且,CEO可能每年或者每隔一段時間都要進行體檢,目的是盡早發現重大疾病,具體如何執行則取決于保險合同。 ????摩根大通發言人稱,公司并沒有給戴蒙夠買保險,不過他可能參加了公司最高層的集體保險。 ????凱里說,他一直建議客戶從外部招聘高管時至少把壓力測試作為盡職調查的一部分。他說:“有時候,為了把某位高管(從前任雇主那里)挖過來,一家公司要付出數千萬美元的資金,結果卻發現這位高管有病在身。這種情況在《財富》200強企業中比較普遍。在排名低一些的中型企業中,出現這種情況的公司較少。” ????雖然在高管身體健康的問題上并沒有統一的標準可循,但一般來說,美國證券交易委員會的規定要求各家公司公開披露涉及CEO的實質性信息(即所有可能影響投資者就買賣證券作出決定的信息)。在凱里所說的“后喬布斯時代”,董事會成員和首席執行官需要遵守對這項規定更為寬泛的解釋。 ????史蒂夫?喬布斯當初被診斷患有癌癥并接受肝移植手術時,蘋果公司(Apple)對他的病情處理欠妥,已經成為CEO患病時公司處理方式的反面教材。蘋果方面從來沒有把喬布斯每況愈下的健康情況完全告知投資者,甚至是在喬布斯明顯消瘦、開始休假的時候也是如此。美國證券交易委員會后來還對這家公司是否誤導投資者進行了調查。 ????戴蒙在上周二發布聲明的做法跟2012年沃倫?巴菲特被診斷出患有前列腺癌時采用的方法一致。盡管醫生說病情“對他的生命沒什么威脅,甚至不會讓他明顯衰弱”,但作為伯克希爾-哈撒韋(Berkshire Hathaway)的董事長兼首席執行官,巴菲特仍然決定致信股東,宣布醫生的初步診斷結果。 ????凱里說:“出現這種局面時,有的公司會告訴董事會不要插手,史蒂夫?喬布斯的情況就是這方面的典型事例。” ????史蒂芬?甘德爾也參與了這次報道。(財富中文網) ????譯者:Charlie |
????JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday told the company’s employees and shareholders that he’s been diagnosed with curable throat cancer and that his prognosis is excellent. ????While Dimon’s diagnosis isn’t apparently life-threatening, it nonetheless prompted the question of who will succeed him at JPMorgan’s JPM -1.04% helm. But his announcement raised an even broader question: just what is expected of CEOs when it comes to their health? ????The U.S. president receives regular check-ups and discloses the results every few years. (At President Barack Obama’s last exam in June, doctors deemed him healthy since he “exercises daily, remains tobacco-free, and only drinks alcohol occasionally and in moderation.”) Is the same expected of business leaders, who are often indelibly linked to a company’s financial performance? ????A JPMorgan spokesman told Fortune on Wednesday that the company has no requirement that Dimon receive regular check-ups. Though he gets regular exams anyway because, as a person close to Dimon told us, the JPMorgan CEO “focuses on his health, regularly playing tennis and running with his wife and kids.” ????While that’s the case at JPMorgan, practices certainly vary from company to company, says Dennis Carey of Korn Ferry, who has led CEO recruitment and succession planning efforts for companies like 3M, AT&T, and Office Depot. ????Companies are known to buy so-called “key person” insurance policies for their CEOs, which put a dollar amount on executives’ contributions to the company and protects against a financial hardship should they die. Before those policies are issued, a CEO is usually required to disclose any health risks, says Keith Martinsen, executive vice president at ABD Insurance and Financial Services. And, depending on the policy, a CEO might also be expected to get a physical every year or so, the hope being that any catastrophic illness would be caught early. ????The JPMorgan spokesman said that the bank has no specific insurance policy on Dimon, though he may be covered by a group plan for the bank’s top employees. ????Carey says he always advises his clients to include at least a stress test as part of their due diligence when hiring executives from the outside. “In some cases, companies are billing out tens of millions of dollars to buy out an executive [from a previous employer] only to find out that the exec has an illness,” Carey says. “It’s more prevalent in the Fortune 200 and less so as you go down into mid-market companies.” ????While there is no overarching standard on how to handle an executive’s health, in general, boards of directors and CEOs are adhering to a more liberal interpretation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule that requires companies to publicly disclose material information about a CEO (i.e. anything that would influence an investor’s decision to buy or sell securities) in what Carey referred to as the “post-Jobs era.” ????When Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer and received a liver transplant, Apple’s mishandling of his sickness became the standard of what not to do when a CEO falls ill. The company never fully informed investors about Job’s failing health, even as the Apple founder became noticeably thin and took leaves of absence. The SEC later investigated whether the company had misled investors. ????Dimon’s announcement on Tuesday mirrors the approach Warren Buffett took when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. Even though doctors had said it was “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO chose to announce his early-stage diagnosis in a letter to shareholders ????“The Steve Jobs situation was the tour de force in terms of reminding boards to get out in front of this sort of stuff,” Carey says. ????Additional reporting by Stephen Gandel. |