Getting the most from Board Evaluations

The silver lining in the cloud of corporate accounting and other scandals that reached critical mass a couple of years ago is the implementation of a number of corporate governance reforms and best practices, including regular board evaluations. These were once strictly optional, but now are required to be addressed in corporate governance guidelines by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing requirements and are, by extension, an expectation for all public companies that wish to practice good governance. In other words, board evaluations of some kind will become part of the governance standard for virtually all companies and will be among the governance committees more important tasks.

There are at least two approaches to performing the annual board evaluation:

1. Doing the bare minimum required to fulfill the requirement, such as having directors fill out a brief questionnaire.

2. Planning and executing a process that truly will add value to the board and, consequently, to shareholders.

It shouldnt surprise readers Spencer Stuart subscribes to the latter approach. A well thought-out and executed board evaluation process should prove beneficial ... READ MORE

Released by Spencer Stuart

Spencer Stuart is a privately held, global executive Search firm, spanning over 50 offices in 25 countries.

A premier firm for board counsel and recruitment, Spencer Stuart conducts well over half of all director assignments handled through executive search. For the past 20 years, their Board Services Practice has helped boards around the world identify and recruit outside directors and provided advice to chairmen, CEOs and nominating committees on important governance issues.

Spencer Stuart has played an active role in corporate governance by exploring key concerns of boards and innovative solutions to the challenges facing them.