alexy
That is exactly what I observe reading documents that come to me about stocks of the company I am in. From time to time they ask for voting on a number of issues. Every item is supplied with comments from the BOD. They usually conclude with the recommendation on how to vote. For the time I have the stocks I can recall voting on social issues such as retention and job satisfaction. They have been recommended to turn down and they have been. Some propositions have names attached and some don't. It looks like those with names are from the grbutt-root folk. They usually rejected. All personal changes to the BOD is voted as well. Once a year I get an invitation to participate in a shareholder's meeting. Usually in Manhattan. The hall they reserve for that is usually pretty small - for couple of hundred persons from which I conclude that only those with sufficiently large chunks of shares are going to attend.
It is not every day control but it could not be. Such control would paralyze the enterprise. My impression is that the actual control is achieved through placement people with certain ideas on the BOD by the group that possesses sufficiently enough shares. That is why for instance you can observe that all of sudden some crazy stuff becomes in fashion. Like outsourcing. It is because it is currently what this narrow group believes would work.
Old Pif
