A LIFE IN PROGRESS
By Ray Lucas
E
ach year, every corporation
in America is required
by law to hold an annual
Shareholder meeting. It’s
typically a boring affair that
requires the shareholders to vote on corporate
board members, approve an accounting firm
and to hear from executives sharing their annual
report and strategic vision for the year ahead.
While most of these corporate meetings are
pretty dry, there are a few outliers that offer more
animated examples for businesses. Warren Buffet,
the billionaire leader of Berkshire Hathaway,
hosts one of the most exciting annual gatherings
that has been referred to as “Woodstock for
capitalists.” Their meetings have included
shopping days, a video about the company with
celebrity appearances on a jumbotron, a folksy
question and answer session with Mr. Buffett, and
an “invest in yourself” 5K run. It draws 40,000
shareholders and has grown into an exclusive
who’s who of investors.
With Buffet’s example of creativity in mind,
I wonder what it would look like if each family
were also required to hold an annual shareholder
meeting? As I draw on my own family’s example,
I can envision our four shareholder children
attending while my wife and I, the exhausted
94 EXTOL : OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019
HOTWHEELS
IPHONES
COFFEE
PRODUCTIVITY
OUR FAMILY’S
ANNUAL
SHAREHOLDER
MEETING
CLOTHES
TIME OF DAY
but passionate executive leadership team, try to
highlight our family successes for the year and
address shareholder questions and concerns.
The meeting would start after a quorum
is established with a tense vote to see if the
shareholders once again approve of the leadership
team of Mom and Dad. Mom gets four yes votes
to ratify her role for another term. The early vote
by those in attendance is two for and one against
Dad. With one child away at college, a proxy vote
has to be received by mail and puts Dad over the
top by a final 3-1 margin. Dad makes a mental note
to check with the official meeting secretary on the
“no vote” to decide who won’t be getting dessert
tonight. The minutes note that both parents are
retained as the head of the family.
The next order of business is to approve
retention of the accounting firm of Money Leaks
Out in Every Direction, PLC. Dad makes the point
before the vote that if the kids could cut back on
shareholder perks like iPhones, trendy clothes
and a weekly Hot Wheels purchase during grocery
trips to Meijer, the family corporation would have
a much improved balance sheet. He recommends
a new accounting firm of Tighten Our Belts Inc.
for a vote. The college-aged shareholder child in
attendance counters that the executive’s twice-
a-week habit of six dollar coffees should also be
eliminated. Dad withdraws his motion for a new
accounting firm while sipping on the Dark Drink
Latte just purchased at Coffee Crossing.
At this point, the annual meeting is taken over
by an activist seven-year-old shareholder arguing
that large sections of corporate policies are unjust.
He grabs the mic to plead that early bedtimes are
killing nighttime Lego productivity. A twelve-year-
old shareholder joins in the fray to complain that
executive allowances are 1,000 times larger than
the children’s shareholder allowance.
The executives counter with a “we’ll see” promise