Directorate

  

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

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Finance a la shmoop what are interlocking directorates? got global

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corporate Skull and Bones conspiracy theory on the brain well you'll need it [Man holding skull and bones conspiracy theory]

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when you think about this one an interlocking Directorate happens when a

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number of companies share directors so that each company is you know business

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friendly with the other the heyday of interlocking directorates was the

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Rockefeller era when the former wealthiest man in the world wanted to [John Rockefeller appears]

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control more or less everything in and around discovery, drilling, storage,

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distribution and banking in and around Big Oil

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so the Rockefeller interlocking Directorate of say nine white men on

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each board and yes in those days they were all white and men well three of

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them on this board overseeing the rockefeller holdings in drilling would

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also be on the board of well his company holdings in oil storage and

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these other three who sat on his oil storage board would also sit on his

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train plane and automobile distribution businesses well the boards are

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interlocked to be sure that each of the vertically integrated monopolies played

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nice with each other and you know kept the monopoly party going ooh and the [Board members playing monopoly]

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party did rage on for a very long time interlocking directorates got a lot of

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grief in the U.S at the time yes they did and that's noteworthy because well

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in Japan and Korea and Russia and other countries which make big products like

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cars and washing machines and cell phones that are competitive with the big [Kids playing sack race]

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US companies well they're interlocking directorates are the normal way of doing

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business you know the norm if gravity still

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exists well over time those interlocking directorates carry a structural

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advantage over the US system because they can rely on each other for supply

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and for demand they can plan many many years into the future and they can elbow

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out any would-be competition who might be there with huge heft in government [Man performs karate move on another man]

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help in the U.S it's kind of the opposite it's more like every company

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for him or herself so there's no cooperation there and the government

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it's more the enemy half the time than your business partner

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well interlocking directorates are not necessarily evil they're just a [Man with horns appears]

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component of a globally competitive industry where the structure of company

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ownership needs to reflect the basic concept that each share of common stock

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could and should carry one vote so now that you understand interlocking

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directorates we can finally get back to the question of who killed Kennedy this

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guy sure doesn't have an alibi [Big foot walking in a misty forest]

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