Governance Structures and Practices: Apple, Mercedes, Vodafone Report

This report provides a comparative analysis of the corporate governance structures and practices of Apple, Mercedes-Benz, and Vodafone. It begins by defining corporate governance and then examines how each company demonstrates good corporate governance within its specific context. The report details the distinct governance models employed by each company, including the roles of CEOs, boards of directors, and various committees. The report also highlights how each company's governance approach impacts its stakeholders and contributes to the broader governance systems of the countries in which they operate. The report explores the different theories of corporate governance adopted by each company, such as Stewardship theory, resource dependence theory and stakeholder theory. Finally, it outlines the differences between the companies' governance structures and practices, demonstrating how these are influenced by the respective countries' governance systems, including the impact on their stakeholders and the wider society.

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y u i o p a s d f g h j k l z x c v b n m
Governance & Globalising World
Report
9/14/2018
Student Name

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Corporate Governance
Corporate governance can be defined as the way or process through which the functioning of
the company can be controlled and directed. This controlling and direction helps the
organization to achieve sustainability in the business for the long period. In other words,
corporate governance is the mechanism, processes and relation by which the company is
performing their task in order to accomplish their rights and responsibilities (Jo and Harjoto,
2011).
Apple
The corporate governance structure of apple found to be good in nature and have made the
separate department to get the accountability and synchronization in the company. From the
corporate governance policies of the Apple, it has been analyzed that the Apple has the
dominant CEO, which makes the policies and rules, which are found to be good for the
company performance. Another analysis made is related to the board diversity and
composition made by the CEO of the company. Apple has two independent directors and in
totals 13 directors. The distribution of the board is done in such a manner that is able to take
the accountability of the entire department while analyzing all the errors committed at every
level (Corporate Governance, 2018a).
Corporate Governance is finding relevant and crucial in maintaining the relationship with the
shareholders of the company. The majority of the shareholders are satisfied with the
performance of the company and its policies. Shareholders are satisfied due to the high
returns are given by Apple to their stakeholders. The other stakeholders of the company are
also satisfied with the company due to high support and brand image has been shared with
them (Prezi, 2018). The company has find with using the Stewardship theory of corporate
governance in their model. As the all the staff and management in Apple are the owners and
both the groups have the same common goal to achieve. The boards in Apple do not found to
be controlling as like in other organisation. The board is supportive, give empowerment to
their executive, and in return increase the potential for higher performance (Ebrary.net,
2018).
Impact on the country governance system
Apple has launched a pilot version of the clean water program in the year 2014 which has
impacted the whole country water sources with 13 suppliers sites who collectively uses more
than 41 million cubic meters of water per year. Not only in the field of water has reservation
Apple had also given its contribution to educating the mass at a time. Apple has started the
education and development program, which is free of cost to the labors working in 18
factories. In this program, more than 280000 workers took various courses and able to grab
the new skill with knowledge. This gives the country a support to grow in the market in terms
of educating their peoples (Newsroom, 2003).
Mercedes Benz

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The corporate governance structure in Mercedes Benz is found to channelize in nature.
Separate department is made for the conduct of board meetings, annual meetings, and other
meetings. The board of Management in the company is responsible for independently
managing and representing the business in order to deal with the clients of the business. On
the other hand, the supervisory department has also been set up by the company to have
control over the Board management of the company. The corporate governance is involved in
the conducting the annual meetings of the company (Daimler, 2018). Mercedes is following
the corporate governance principles in the Pyramid of excellence. The principles are guiding
towards the passion, discipline, respect, and integrity of the company. This brings the
knowledge that economic excellence can only be achieved by the company action. The
parameters set by the company helps in setting the standards for the performance allowed or
prohibited in the company. The corporate governance in Mercedes is established the rules and
framework within which whole organization are free to conduct his or her own responsibility.
Corporate governance in Mercedes is considered the only way to get the integrity to become
a standard practice in the workplace (CSR Box, 2017).
Mercedes Bens is finding to have the resource dependence theory to be used in their
governance structure. The board in Mercedes are exists as a provider of resources to
executives in order to help organisation in achieving the organisational goals. In this
structure, Mercedes has the strong financial support, human and intangible supports given to
the executives so that the easy implementation can be done in the organisation (Ebrary.net,
2018).
Impact on the country governance system
Mercedes is contributing to the development of the society. The company is giving focus on
building the healthy and educated nation. For this company is contributing to and managing
the campaign for the HIV/AIDS and another education program. Introducing these programs
by the company makes the image, which satisfies the stakeholders and works a the safeguards
to the organization in achieving their objectives. Another activity performed by the Mercedes
to make the countries governance system rely on the company governance system is
introducing the campaign, which is focussed on the child safety and vulnerable road users in
India in 2017. The aim of introducing these campaigns is to ensure that the company has the
good corporate image in the market in order to get the sustainability of their business
(Sustainability, 2018).
Vodafone
Nowadays is considered the largest network in the world. The Vodafone Company has found
with the good corporate governance structure, which is followed, in the organization. The
company has found with the different committee and department made in the organization in
order to have specialization and accountability in the entire department made in the
organization. In Vodafone, the governance committee has formed with the three non-
executive directors with a chairperson, Gerard Kleisterlee. The key objective of this
department is to ensure that the Boards comprises of individuals with the necessary skills,

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knowledge and experience to get all the matters related to the corporate governance
(Corporate Governance, 2018b).
Another department in the Vodafone is developed for the Audit and risk committee. In the
department in which there are four independent and non-executive director who is
responsible to look into the affairs of the internal financial returns. All the activities related to
the compliance and business risk has been taken by the department. Some other department
has been also set up by the corporate governance of the Vodafone in the name of the
remuneration committee (Giroud and Mueller, 2011). The Vodafone has found with the
stakeholders theory in which the company is concerned about its stakeholders. The Vodafone
are concerns for their clients, customers, suppliers and the surrounding communities and have
the stake in a corporation (Ebrary.net, 2018).
Impact on the country governance system
The government is focusing on providing the socio-ecological friendly rules and regulations.
It is the responsibility of the corporate to abide by these principles. In order to follow the
principles and guidelines given by the government like measures taken on control of
pollution, ban on employment of child labor, protection against health hazards etc. All these
measures when taken by the company, improve its images in the market. Not only improve
the image but also able to bring fewer barriers and restrictions from the government side. The
Vodafone is launching its core internal value that is passion around the world us. The
separate network has been established which has expanded the team, and are dedicated to
corporate social responsibility. These social responsibilities are interconnected to each other
with a management risk process. From the economy point of view, Vodafone has introduced
the initial review of cash value-added distribution in the country. Another advancement made
by the Vodafone is giving much exposure to the Digital Divide issue in Digitalising the
Europe (Harjoto and Jo, 2011).

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