There are two ways that shareholders control me. First is by my stock price. Every morning when I wake up I say, ‘Alexa, play my flash briefing’ which includes the HBS Management tip of the day, the weather forecast for Los Angeles, and my stock price. When the stock is up I feel great, and when it’s down I feel terrible.
The more direct act of control are shareholder votes. Being publicly traded means I can ask questions of my shareholders and they are motivated to give me their best advice in the hopes that it raises the stock price. So I can ask them, “Should I get a vasectomy?” and let them vote on it.
Not everything in my life is voted on, because while a day is full of choices, I’m plenty capable of making most of those decisions. I turn to the shareholders for anything I would normally ask my friends about. These are votes on decisions I’m actually considering. Some are big (like getting a vasectomy) and some are small.
Can A Shareholder Propose a Shareholder Vote?
Not really, but kind of. While I am the only person who can post a new shareholder vote I have always been open to ideas for votes coming from the shareholders. Any shareholder can join the KmikeyM Slack instance and recommend ideas, or post ideas to the changemap, or contact me directly.
Ultimately I maintain control of what goes up for a vote, but the shareholders can express their support of those votes by buying and selling shares. And of course the more shares you have the more I will listen to you.