The importance of competent and honest people

Posted on | August 30, 2010 | No Comments

A Swedish investment bank HQ Bank has recently lost its permit by the government to run a bank. The reason is its too high risk level.

One board member, Catharina Lagerstam, was appointed in April and she did an independent valuation of the holdings by the board meeting in May, at which she said that the holdings were overvalued by 100 million dollars. When she did not receive the support of the board she resigned. The chairman of the board, Mats Qviberg (the Q in the name of the bank) said: “She did not have strong enough nerves to continue.” Three months later the bank lost its permit from the Swedish organization that oversees the banks, called the FI in Sweden.

Now there is a really strong debate going on here in Sweden about the value of people who develop independent opinions and speak their mind, even if it goes contrary to the views of their superiors. One columnist in the Swedish business daily DI wrote that chairmen of boards are supposed to look for this type of independent, strong and honest board members.

Regardless of this, the scrutiny that I have put forward in the books “Global Energy Transformation” and “Overcoming Overuse” of the way we approach sustainability and the perilous future of affluence and economic growth goes unnoticed.

We will have a government election in September, and the energy issue is hardly even mentioned. Probably due to the fact that Sweden ranks among the best in the world in terms of low carbon emissions! This is mostly due to our high share of nuclear energy and hydroelectric power, but we are as dependent on oil as most other countries, which is the real problem we will be facing as oil production starts to decline.

We need to look for honest scritiny not only in the valuation of companies, but also in many areas in society that are not controlled by companies.

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