Business Books: Veteran campaigner takes on corporate America

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Robert Monks has been on a 25-year mission to make an obdurate corporate America mend its ways.

He has hounded Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) to split the role of chairman and chief executive into two jobs -- to no avail. And Sears (SHLD.O) sued him for trying to get a list of the retailer's shareholders in the early 1990s, when he was campaigning for a seat on its board.

Now, Monks lays out how to address the power of corporations in his book "Corpocracy" (Wiley, $29.95), his ninth on the subject of corporate governance, which was published on his 74th birthday last month.

"It's to start the pendulum swinging," he said in an interview. "But I can't tell whether it will swing far enough."

To be clear, Monks does not oppose capitalism. He wants companies to succeed, just not by abusing their power. His fight is for efficiency and corporate behavior that the general population can live with.

In a recurring fantasy, he dreams the next U.S. president will sit down with cabinet members, spell out the duties of companies and demand that government spending be used to enforce those duties.

And he would like to repeal a 1978 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing corporations to make contributions to influence the political process.

New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston takes a similar tack in his new book, "Free Lunch" (Portfolio, $24.95), which says the wealthy, including big corporations and their CEOs, use the U.S. government to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Johnston argues that, under the guise of deregulation, a whole new set of regulations has quietly thwarted competition, depressed wages, and rewarded misconduct for the benefit of a wealthy few.

FEW PHILOSOPHER KINGS

According to Monks, CEOs should be more like Frank Blake of Home Depot (HD.N), whose compensation is based on creating shareholder value. Blake's predecessor, Robert Nardelli, stepped down in January with a $210 million exit package despite poor stock performance during his six-year tenure.

Monks also praises Jeff Immelt at General Electric (GE.N), but laments that too few other CEOs say anything that is "almost worthy of philosopher-king status."

Monks is an unlikely shareholder activist. Born into a privileged Boston family that traces its line to before the Revolutionary War, he counts Ned Johnson, the billionaire owner of Fidelity Investments, as a friend.

He took up corporate governance after stints as chairman of money manager Boston Co and CEO of energy company C.H. Sprague & Co.

Over the years, he has had some victories and some memorable moments.