SHOW NEWS: Las Vegas Near Sell-Out; Exhibit Hours Cut 20%, Western Announces Las Vegas Seminars, LAFA Sets Las Vegas Quality Training; Fastener Fair to Alternate Locations
John Wolz
Las Vegas Approaches Sell-Out; Exhibit Hours Cut 20%
The National Industrial Fastener Show/West is nearly sold out of booth space, and the trade show has been cut to one day, general manager Gloria Crase announced.
The fastener distribution-oriented show will now be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, November 16, 2001, at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.
Conferences sponsored by the Western Association of Fastener Distributors and Los Angeles Fastener Association will be on Thursday.
As of July 20 all but 10 of the 600 booths were sold, Crase said.
�The exhibit area is already so large that we honestly don�t believe attendees will be able to see everything in one day,� Crase said. �It will certainly be a busy place. We are expecting up to 3,000 fastener distributors, importers, manufacturers reps and others to attend.�
Companies requesting exhibit space after booths are sold will be placed on a waiting list.
�With the exhibit area so full of booths and crowded with an expected 5,000 people, including exhibitor personnel, the hotel simply did not have enough room to set up bars and food serving stations,� general partner Jim Bannister said. �Plus, we were concerned with safety and the Fire Marshal having a fit.�
Bannister told FIN he would offer a full refund to any exhibitor wanting to cancel because of the reduction in hours.
Instead of exhibits being open Thursday evening, the �Bolt Bash� sponsored by Copper State Bolt & Nut Co. will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the neighboring Bally�s Hotel.
For information contact Crase. Tel: 614 895-8348. Fax 614 895-3466. E-mail: nifswest@fastenershows.com Web: ****************************************************************
Media Spotlight: �How Many Boards?� Features ITW�s Farrell
John Wolz
Editor�s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts which show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.
�James Farrell�s corporate dance card is full,� Chicago Tribune reporter Melissa Allison leads off her examination of how many corporate boards an executive can effectively serve on.
�Besides his full-time job as chairman and chief executive of Illinois Tool Works Inc., a $10 billion manufacturing giant, Farrell juggles directorships at four of Chicago�s 50 largest companies plus the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,� Allison notes.
�Board meetings alone consume roughly a month of his year, but for Farrell the busy schedule has its rewards: Last year, he took home roughly $220,000 in board compensation on top of his $2.2 million ITW salary and bonus.�
�Some wonder, however, whether the companies he serves, and their shareholders, are getting their money�s worth. Farrell serves on more corporate boards, local or not, than any other CEO in the top 50.�
�Someone is getting short shrift,� Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, was quoted by the Tribune.
Half of Chicago�s top 50 companies� CEOs sit on at least one other corporate board, and a third are on two or more.
And while executives say they gain important insights from outside board service and want their company�s directors to have other board experience, experts have long argued that directors who serve on a large number of boards cannot possibly find time to do them all justice.
No studies have shown that boards with the busiest directors consistently deliver poor returns over the long term, but large institutions are demanding that directors watch management�s activities and are willing to try to rein in salaries.
�As a result, more companies now search for board members with fewer outside obligations, and ones who are not too closely connected to one another or to management.
Farrell can be connected to most of Chicago�s 50 largest companies through three or fewer links. And the same names turn up on those firms� boards of directors with amazing regularity: Big hitters like Molex Inc. co-CEO Fred Krehbiel, Chicago money manager John Rogers and McDonald�s Corp. co-founder and senior
chairman Fred Turner each sit on four boards of the top 50 companies.
Elson figures a single directorship consumes one business month a year in telephone calls, reading, board meetings and other activities. Multiply that by five in Farrell�s case � Allstate Corp.; Quaker Oats Co.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and, beginning this year, UAL Corp. and the Fed � plus his board and leadership roles at ITW, and �it is difficult to fathom how he finds time for it all,� Allison wrote.
Farrell declined to be interviewed for this report.
Companies often turn to outside search firms when they have empty board seats.
Peter Crist, head of the global board practice at Korn/Ferry International, said his No. 1 request from clients is for a board member who is a sitting CEO without multiple board positions. Most clients �won�t even consider somebody who�s on three boards already. Sometimes two is a stretch,� Crist told the Tribune.
In general, CEOs and other senior executives should sit on no more than two public-company boards outside of their company, according to guidelines from a 2001 �blue ribbon commission� report from the National Association of Corporate Directors. Others with full-time jobs can serve effectively on three or four boards, while people without full-time jobs, such as retirees, should limit themselves to six public-company boards.
Shareholder activist and editor of The Corporate Library Nell Minow told the Tribune that executives are increasingly concerned that �they are going to get sued at some point� for serving on too many boards.
In cracking down on directors who are �overboarded,� Minow once blew the whistle on her father, Newton Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a Chicago lawyer and author.
Because Newton Minow sat on so many boards, she recalls, he missed more than 25% of the board meetings at Aon Corp. and therefore was not recommended for reelection by a shareholder activist group.\
�2001 FastenerNews.com
Share: