智识与洞见 | 董事会成员寻访

For good or ill, activists now are important players in the investor ecology, with increasingly successful records for changing a board’s makeup. At Egon Zehnder, we identified 58 incidents of investor activism against S&P 500 companies over the last two years. Of those, 16 contests involved changes to board composition, urging a “no” vote on the management’s slate of directors or proposing, or threatening to propose, an alternative slate.

The challenges posed by the epic turbulence in the price of oil will highlight how effective the boards of directors of different companies are in providing meaningful guidance and counsel to their CEOs.

Egon Zehnder and The Conference Board are pleased to present a new Governance Watch webcast series that will focus on critical governance and operational issues important to corporate Board members and/or C-suite executives.

In the current business environment, supervisory boards are responding to significantly higher expectations by professionalizing their operations. What are some of the steps boards can take in the quest for higher performance?

Digital transformation is the defining challenge facing industries such as banking and retail. But the board of directors and the executive committee of companies undergoing such change must remember that they cannot transform their organization on their own.

The annual visit to the doctor for a physical exam is an ironic ritual of modern life. After all the questions and tests, the desired outcome is to hear that nothing is wrong. While freedom from illness is a very good thing, there is a big difference between that and being in peak condition. How much more informative would the annual checkup be if it could tell us not just how to avoid sickness but how to be stronger and more flexible and have greater endurance? Rather than being a chore, the exam’s insights might make it something to look forward to.

For independent board chairmen of global companies, challenges continue to grow while room for error continues to shrink. Shareholders demand more rapid returns. Increasing regulation around the world demands exemplary corporate governance and rigorous compliance. Controversy about executive compensation has taken on new life in the context of rising income inequality.

The benefit of cross-industry hires (with respect to digital developments e.g.)

The importance of developing a vision and show deep curiosity for new challenges.

Women are in demand and can lead if they are able and willing, but this “is a delibaret choice – and entails sacrifice” - featuring Board Diversity Results in Hongkong from an EZ study.

Boardrooms have long been the domain of executives in their 50s, 60s – and even 70s, now that more boards are loosening mandatory retirement limits. But many boards are also electing directors in their early 30s – very often younger entrepreneurs who are the leading lights of digital transformation.

The traditional approach of filling board seats as they become available must give way to a more deliberate, longer-term perspective on board composition. A well-defined, long-term strategy helps the board give director succession planning the sustained, focused attention that it needs.