Why companies need owners

Today's CEOs are accountable to no one, says shareholder activist Bob Monks.

"What this company needs is an owner," declared Sam Zell, after completing the $8.2 billion deal that put him in charge of the Tribune Co., which owns newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and Newsday. "It needs someone who accepts the responsibility for what this company does."

How true. Whether Zell, as a committed owner, will help save newspapers is an open question. But the fact that the real estate billionaire has a lot of skin in the game - $315 million of his money, plus the right to buy up to 40 percent of the company down the line - means that he, and his people, will be very focused on getting the job done.

All companies need owners who are engaged, committed and, ideally, thinking about long term. So argues Robert A.G. Monks, the shareholder activist, author, lawyer, entrepreneur and corporate director in a new book, called "Corpocracy: How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World's Greatest Wealth Machine - and How to Get It Back" (Wiley, 2007, $29.95).

See full Article.