For the past two decades, and particularly in the recent years, the governance of corporations and boards of directors have been receiving great attention from regulators, researchers, shareholders, and directors themselves. Legislation, codes, and guidelines for corporate governance practices are at an all-time high. The amazing thing about all this activity is that it has been based on very little knowledge about the relationship of corporate governance to corporate performance, and almost none about how boards actually work. Paradoxically, while regulation of, and writing about, private sector boards have increased in a dramatic fashion, actual knowledge about how boards work has increased hardly at all. The reason for this is that boards are notoriously difficult to study. Of all major institutions in society, they are probably the most closedfew board meetings, if any, are ever open to the public and it is seldom that outsiders are invited to attendso little is known about how and why boards make decisions. Inside the Boardroom does go behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of boards of directors, interviews with directors, and a comprehensive investigation into boardroom processes and how boards and the individual directors who lead them make decisions. The conclusions reported in this book are based on Richard Leblancs in-depth five-year study of thirty-nine boards of directors. His investigation included attending board and committee meetings, and interviews with almost 200 directors who serve on boards in Canada, the United States, and other countries. The boards studied include boards of for-profit companies from a range of industries, government corporations, and not-for-profit organizations.
Book Details:
- Author: Richard Leblanc
- ISBN: 9780470157138
- Year Published: 2008
- Pages: 336
- BISAC: BUS071000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Leadership
About the Book and Topic:
For the past two decades, and particularly in the recent years, the governance of corporations and boards of directors have been receiving great attention from regulators, researchers, shareholders, and directors themselves. Legislation, codes, and guidelines for corporate governance practices are at an all-time high. The amazing thing about all this activity is that it has been based on very little knowledge about the relationship of corporate governance to corporate performance, and almost none about how boards actually work. Paradoxically, while regulation of, and writing about, private sector boards have increased in a dramatic fashion, actual knowledge about how boards work has increased hardly at all. The reason for this is that boards are notoriously difficult to study. Of all major institutions in society, they are probably the most closedfew board meetings, if any, are ever open to the public and it is seldom that outsiders are invited to attendso little is known about how and why boards make decisions. Inside the Boardroom does go behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of boards of directors, interviews with directors, and a comprehensive investigation into boardroom processes and how boards and the individual directors who lead them make decisions. The conclusions reported in this book are based on Richard Leblancs in-depth five-year study of thirty-nine boards of directors. His investigation included attending board and committee meetings, and interviews with almost 200 directors who serve on boards in Canada, the United States, and other countries. The boards studied include boards of for-profit companies from a range of industries, government corporations, and not-for-profit organizations.
Hot topic: Never before in history has corporate governance received such attention. Recent scandals and revelations of questionable business ethics have forced companies under the microsope, and have generated an unprecedented rash of legislation to deal with the problem. Inside information: This book goes where few have gone beforeinto the boardroomsto reveal how boards really work. Board meetings are usually closed, private, and confidential; but this book is based on a five-year study that took the authors behind closed doors to observe, interview, and record what happens there. Challenges the status quo thinking: Most prescriptions for improving corporate governance (including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) focus on the structure of boardstheir size, composition, meeting frequency, etc. But this book shows there is no direct correlation between board structure and corporate performance. Instead, it explains that to improve corporate results, boards need to focus more on processes and behavioural characteristics of individual board members. Ground-breaking prescriptions for change: Offers a new classification scheme for types of directors based on behaviour, competency, and independence, and shows how to determine the optimum combination for maximum board effectiveness. Compelling first-hand comments: Features interviews and quotations from directors, regulators, chief executive officers, and shareholders that offer candid, and sometimes shocking, revelations of what really goes on behind the boardroom doors. Author profile: Since results of Dr. Leblancs study were previewed in the national press, he has had an excellent response from the media, the corporate and academic communities, and a rash of bookings for speaking engagements to key groups such as the National Association of Corporate Directors in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Directors and Henley Management College in London, and the Australian Institute of Directors.
About the Author
Richard Leblanc, Ph.D., is an award-winning teacher, lawyer, management consultant, and professor and specialist on boards of directors. Dr. Leblanc teaches corporate governance at the Schulich School of Business, York University. He is a frequent speaker on the topic to corporations and organizations such as the National Association of Corporate Directors in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Directors and Henley Management College in London, the Australian Institute of Directors, and at other meetings throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. He heads the University Centre for Management Studies Inc., a board consultancy practice, advising boards of directors and individual directors. James Gillies, Ph.D., has had a distinguished career as a corporate director, politician, and academic. As a director, he has served on over thirty North American boards ranging across a variety of industry sectors, including consumer products, manufacturing, not-for-profit, banking, real estate, high technology, and natural resources. He served for fourteen years as a member of the faculty of the school of business at the University of California at Los Angeles and has published extensively in the field of corporate governance. He is Professor Emeritus at the Schulich School of Business, York University, where he also serves as Chair of the Canada-Russia Corporate Governance Program. His most recent book in the field is Boardroom Renaissance: Power, Morality and Performance in the Modern Corporation.