A New York Times bestselling author and veteran board member offers an insider's view of corporate boards, their struggles, and why they must adapt to survive. Corporate boards are under great pressure. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised justified questions among regulators, shareholders, and the public about the quality of corporate governance. In How Boards Work, prizewinning economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider's view of corporate boards as they are buffeted by the turbulence of our times. Moyo argues that corporations need boards that are more transparent, more knowledgeable, more diverse, and more deeply involved in setting the strategic course of the companies they lead. How Boards Work offers a road map for how boards can steer companies through tomorrow's challenges and ensure they thrive to benefit their employees, shareholders, and society at large.
A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation. When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, while fostering positive social impact and economic value creation. At all levels, executives around the world are faced with complexities rising from disruptive business models, new technologies, socio-economic changes, shifting political circumstances, and an array of other sources. High Performance Boards is the comprehensive manual for attaining best-in-class governance, offering pragmatic guidance on improving board quality, accountability, and performance. This authoritative volume identifies the four dimensions, or pillars, which are crucial for establishing and maintaining best-practice boards: the people involved, the information architecture, the structures and processes, and the group dynamics and culture of governance. This methodology can be applied to any board in the world, corporate or non-profit organization, regardless of size, sector, industry, or context. Readers are introduced to a fictitious senior board member – an amalgamation of board members from well-known organisations – and follow her as she successfully handles real-life challenges with effective governance. Drawn from the author's 20 years of practice and confidential work with boards across the world, this book: Demonstrates how high-performance boards innovate and refine their practices Discusses examples of board failures and challenges, including case studies from both for-profit and non-profit organisations including international organizations and state-owned agencies or even ministries Provides a proven framework to create best-in-class governance Includes a companion website featuring tools for board assessment and board practice High Performance Boards has inspired more than 3000 board members around the world. This book is essential reading for professionals and managers interested in governance and board members, senior managers, investors, lawyers, and students of governance.
Praise for Nonprofit Boards That Work "This book offers a refreshing and candid look at the challenges ofnonprofit boards. It moves away from theoretical frameworks to takeyou inside the real world of nonprofit organizations. . . . A mustfor any executive director who needs reassurance that buildingeffective boards is tough work, but well worth the effort."-SherryRockey, Executive Director, International Women's MediaFoundation "Maureen Robinson is uniquely qualified to help us understand theissues related to boards that are effective, those that are not,and why. It is certain that board members, potential board members,and executive directors who read this book will better understandtheir roles and responsibilities, and will be better able to avoidcommon pitfalls. As a result, the impact of their efforts on thosewhom their organizations exist to serve will be enhanced."-RonBurkard, Executive Director, World Neighbors As more than 10 million people in the United States alone say yesto board service, they also expect to see their time and talentsused effectively. This invaluable book presents a straightforwardapproach to understanding the role of the board, tailoring its workto meet the needs of specific organizations, and creating a cultureof board productivity that makes participation rewarding for boardmembers as well as the organizations they serve. Nonprofit BoardsThat Work: * Distinguishes between theory and practice and encourages boardsto explore how they genuinely add value to the work of theorganization * Goes beyond the hows and whys of nonprofit governance to providefrank advice and real-world examples of what works, what doesn't,what requires a miracle, and what can be achieved through diligentand deliberate effort * Offers practical yet flexible strategies that can be tried by anynonprofit board, whatever its current effectiveness . . . and much more to guide nonprofit organizations and theirboards toward accomplishing the goals they seek.
With increasing muscle-flexing of shareholders, especially large fund managers,boards of directors are being held accountable for a higher standard of professional behaviour. Making Boards Work focuses on the management of the governance process and outlines specific, practical, how-to steps and actions that can be implemented to make any board more effective. Making extensive use of Canadian case studies drawn from actual experiences, authors David Leighton and Donald Thain illustrate many challenges facing those involved in governance and offer practical solutions. Making Boards Work will help directors, shareholders, managers, advisers, regulators, and legislators alike to -- -better understand the challenges and potential rewards of professional governance -understand and manage the six key success factors for boards -evaluate a board's strengths and weaknesses -outline a new code of conduct for directors -foster and manage a climate of constructive dissent -establish guidelines for an effective chairman -understand why boards fail and how to turn around an underperforming board Authors David Leighton and Donald Thain's experience in corporate governance spans 31 corporate boards, 280 man-years of board service, and literally thousands of board and committee meetings. This wealth of experience translates into an invaluable guide to effective governance that will "ring true" to all those who have grappled with board situations.
Examines how a growing number of corporate boards of directors are taking a proactive role to influence the future direction of their companies, using the examples of specific corporations to demonstrate the importance of board dynamics.
Distinguished governance experts offer cures for what ails our boards of directors In light of corporate malfeasance in recent years, the governance of corporations has been receiving great attention from regulators, researchers, shareholders, and directors themselves. Based on Richard Leblanc's in-depth five-year study of 39 boards of directors of both for- and not-for-profit organizations, Building a Better Board goes behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of boards of directors, including how they make decisions. Recently chosen as one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40"(TM), Dr Richard Leblanc is an award-winning teacher and researcher, certified management consultant, professional speaker, professor, lawyer and specialist on boards of directors. He can be reached at [email protected]. James Gillies, PhD (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), is Professor Emeritus at the Schulich School of Business, York University, where he serves as Chair of the Canada-Russia Corporate Governance Program.
Boards of directors are coming under increasing scrutiny in terms of their contribution in monitoring and controlling management, particularly in the wake of high-profile corporate frauds and failures, and also their potential to add value to organizational performance through involvement in the strategy process and through building relationships with key investors. Despite the importance of these issues, not only to organizations but also arguably to national competitiveness, the nature of board activity remains largely a black box, clouded by prescriptions, prejudices, and half-truths. This book responds to calls for greater scrutiny of boards of directors with an in-depth examination of directors of UK organizations, drawing on the accounts of directors themselves as to their roles, influence, and the potential and limits to their power. Much work on boards of directors has labelled the board as a rubber stamp for dominant management, and non-executive directors in particular have been variously described as poodles, pet rocks, or parsley on the fish. Such accounts are rooted in assumptions of board activity that are essentially adversarial in nature, and that the solution to the 'problem' of reconciling the interests of managers with those of shareholders is to increase the checks and balances available to the board of directors. The findings of this study show that boards, in many cases, are far more than passive rubber stamps for management and that non-executives are encouraged to act as trusted advisers to the executives and the chief executive, rather than solely monitors of executive activity. Boards are important mechanisms in maintaining the strategic framework of the organization through setting the boundaries of organizational activity. The potential of the board members, in particular the non-executives, to fulfil such a mandate depends on a number of factors, including ability, willingness to engage with the organizational issues, and the degree of knowledge they have relevant to the host firm. Above all, the degree of trust built between members of the board, and between the board and key external constituencies, is at the heart of effective board behaviour.
Business scandals from Enron to WorldCom have escalated concerns about corporate governance into a full-blown crisis. Institutional investors and legislators have dominated the debate and enacted important changes in corporate accounting and other areas. But Colin B. Carter and Jay W. Lorsch say that we must now focus on the performance of corporate boards. This timely book argues that boards are being pressed to perform unrealistic duties given their traditional structure, processes, and membership. Carter and Lorsch propose a strategic redesign of boards--making them better attuned to their oversight, decision-making, and advisory roles--to enable directors to meet 21st century challenges successfully. Based on the authors' deep expertise and longtime experience working with boards around the world, and on a probing survey of CEOs, Carter and Lorsch help boards to develop a realistic value proposition customized to the company they serve. The authors explore the core dilemmas and responsibilities boards face and outline a framework for designing the most effective structure, makeup, size, and culture. This book provides a candid account of the current state of boards and points the way in a time of crisis and change.
Interactive Writing is specifically focused on the early phases of writing, and has special relevance to prekindergarten, kindergarten, grade 1 and 2 teachers.
