509 Posts Found

With a higher degree of digital fluency, boards can help C-suite leaders make better decisions about how to expand a company’s most successful technology initiatives and when to pull the plug on lagging ones. In our experience, board directors are more likely to gain such fluency if they routinely ask these five critical questions relating to the IT organization’s performance.

Content: Article | Authors: Aditya Pande, Christoph Schrey | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, IT / Technology / E-Business

The amount of time board directors spend on their work and commit to strategy is rising. But in a new survey, few respondents rate their boards as effective at most tasks or report good feedback or training practices.

Content: Article | Authors: Conor Kehoe, Frithjof Lund, Nina Spielmann | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

Research shows what happens to succession winners and losers.

Content: Article | Authors: Shana Lynch, Tricia Seibold | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Succession Planning

Slow progress in adding more women to boards has dominated the conversation. But tips from standout companies are more likely to inspire others to take firmer action.

Content: Article | Authors: Celia Huber, Sara O’Rourke | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Women in Business

Poor planning for changes in leadership costs companies dearly. Getting it right is worth more than you might think.

Content: Article | Authors: Gary L. Neilson, Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Corporate Governance

The New York Stock Exchange requires that the boards of all publicly traded corporations conduct a self-evaluation at least annually to determine whether they are functioning effectively. Our research suggests that many board evaluations are inadequate. How can boards better evaluate the performance of directors? Any thorough evaluation should assess the following.

Content: Article | Author: David Larcker | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

You shouldn’t be CEO if you say ‘I only work with people smarter than me’ and you do not truly mean it. That being said, and this part is often not said enough, you should be smarter than everyone else on your team in one thing. It does not matter what it is, as long as it enables you to inspire the people who commit … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Seyi Fabode | Source: Medium | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership, Management

CEOs have always had to address conflicts between team members. But this task has grown as each new member comes aboard with a strategy to implement and an expectation that their priorities supersede all others. Health & Safety executives admonish peers who don’t put safety first. Talent executives insist colleagues make “people” their priority or risk an exodus of the best and brightest. Digital executives … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jacques Neatby | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership, Management

We all know the stereotypes: Great CEOs are extroverted. They’re self-promoting. They’re risk takers. But are these stereotypes true? Which traits actually differentiate CEOs from other executives? And, most important, which attributes separate successful CEOs from other CEOs? Russell Reynolds Associates, in partnership with Hogan Assessment Systems, has led a research effort to separate myth from reality, identifying key indicators of leadership that have a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Dean Stamoulis | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

I think that private-equity activity tends to come at the end of the corporate cycle, when a company is already in trouble, has been mismanaged, or is an orphan in need of new leadership. So private equity is another outside agent that comes in when management has failed to do what it needs to do.

Content: Quotation | Author: Louis V. Gerstner | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Business Rules, Corporate Governance, Management, Strategy

I asked [an experienced board member] “what exactly does a CEO do?” He answered without thinking:

“A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.”

I asked, “Is that it?” He replied that the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Fred Wilson | Source: A VC | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Management

An executive’s character traits are linked to certain patterns in a firm’s investments, strategy decisions, and overall performance, a new study finds.

Content: Article | Author: Matt Palmquist | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Organizational Behavior

Executive teams replete with functional experts (CFOs, CHROs, etc.) are so common today one forgets they were not always the norm. By some accounts, the average team size for large firms is now 10, double what it was 30 years ago. Although larger teams theoretically bring benefits, such as a diversity of perspectives, practical downsides have grown with team size. So what can a CEO … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jacques Neatby | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management

Governance arguably suffers most […] when boards spend too much time looking in the rear-view mirror and not enough scanning the road ahead.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Christian Casal, Christian Caspar | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

Since standard stock options don’t differentiate between value created by external factors and individual performance, investors may be shortchanged and CEOs may be rewarded regardless of merit and top-performing CEOs may be penalized if their tenure coincides with a bear market. Indeed, McKinsey research shows that from 1991 to 2000, market and industry factors drove about 70 percent of the returns of individual companies, company-specific … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: J. C. de Swaan, Neil Harper | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Compensation, Corporate Governance

Everybody knows that chief executives receive bounteous pay as a matter of course. Less discernible, though, is who actually earned their pay the most by increasing the value of the companies they run by a commensurate amount. Such performers are not to be confused with executives who work to propel their company’s stock price.

The most common performance metrics used by companies can be problematic. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Gretchen Morgenson | Source: The New York Times | Subject: Corporate Governance

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras wrote in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies that many great chief executives are “time tellers.” They create great products and services, but their value lasts only as long as they are personally present. Senior executives should be more like “clock builders”: focused on making a great company—a company where people think as entrepreneurially as the leaders do, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Zhang Ruimin | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership, Management

For chief executives and other senior leaders, it is not unusual for 60-80% of their pay to be tied to performance – whether performance is measured by quarterly earnings, stock prices, or something else. And yet from a review of the research on incentives and motivation, it is wholly unclear why such a large proportion of these executives’ compensation packages would need to be variable. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Dan Cable | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Human Resources

Boards should have at least one person who has the responsibility to think like an activist investor. Many boards are caught unaware because no director is playing that role.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

It’s safe to say that CEOs are, overall, a talented bunch, but that’s not what separates them from other professionals, nor is it the main reason their firms succeed or fail. Certainly it doesn’t come close to explaining why they’re so well paid. Put another way, CEOs matter, just less than many people think. Instead, luck, and yes, bias, play a far larger role in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Walter Frick | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance