Boardroom Excellence


Book Description

In Boardroom Excellence, author Paul Brountas, a corporate attorney with more than forty years experience, discusses the qualities and components of effective boards in today’s post-Enron environment. Written in a concise format, the book is filled with informative practical advice for board members of private, public, and nonprofit organizations. Boardroom Excellence contains an informed discussion of fundamental corporate governance issues, including the duties and responsibilities of directors and the proper interaction of the board with the CEO and management. Brountas reveals how board members can be most effective when they are independent, possess integrity, are well-informed and involved, and are proactive. Boardroom Excellence offers timely information about Establishing the values and qualities that board members should possess Developing an environment in the boardroom where skepticism and serious discussion are encouraged Understanding what the CEO expects of the board and what the board expects of the CEO Creating effective independent audit, compensation, nominating, and governance committees Formulating guidelines for periodic evaluation of the performance of the board and individual board members




Excellence in the Boardroom


Book Description

The perfect board - Board manners and the director from hell - Things boards could do better - Ten best practices of modern corporate governance - Board and director evaluation - Advisory boards - Board responsibilities - Compensation of company directors - Director accreditation - Executive compensation issues - The rubber meets the road : challenges facing corporations - Corporate responsability - Institutional investors - Some contemporary board issues : hostile takeovers - Three core principles of effective coporate governance.




Inside the Boardroom


Book Description

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.




Poised for Excellence


Book Description

This book is an exceptional resource for leaders at every level across industries. An insightful guidebook comprised of 40 illuminating principles showcasing the fundamental competencies that impact performance in the boardroom and beyond, each chapter includes the following core components: 1) a robust, but succinct discussion introducing each principle; 2) key strategies providing straightforward guidance on how to master each principle; 3) a selection of thoughtful journal questions that allow for meaningful introspection, and finally, 4) a leadership challenge—a stretch goal—that brings each principle into immediate, scalable focus. Whether a seasoned or emerging leader, each reader will discover useful perspectives contained within each chapter designed to firmly orient their thinking and behavior towards leadership excellence. An enduring resource for circumstances in which every leader will inevitably find him or herself confronting, it will also serve as the “go to” professional development resource for elevating leadership brands and facilitating the necessary trench work required to develop competent and confident leaders regardless of industry or expertise. Different from traditional books that provide a one-dimensional view of what leadership is and do little more than categorize existing traits, Poised for Excellence breaks the mold. It creates the context for understanding leadership development as a holistic process: By focusing on the mastery of fundamental principles structured to develop the whole person through service to self and others, it ignites an evolutionary process that cultivates 360 degrees of effective leadership. It directs readers to stake a bold claim to their success and transform the way they show up in the boardroom and beyond. Poised for Excellence was written to nurture the leadership potential in business leaders who desire to operate in excellence and believe that learning and practice are non-negotiable aspects of leadership success.




Socrates in the Boardroom


Book Description

Why top scholars make the best university leaders Socrates in the Boardroom argues that world-class scholars, not administrators, make the best leaders of research universities. Amanda Goodall cuts through the rhetoric and misinformation swirling around this contentious issue—such as the assertion that academics simply don't have the managerial expertise needed to head the world's leading schools—using hard evidence and careful, dispassionate analysis. She shows precisely why experts need leaders who are experts like themselves. Goodall draws from the latest data on the world's premier research universities along with in-depth interviews with top university leaders both past and present, including University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann; Derek Bok and Lawrence Summers, former presidents of Harvard University; John Hood, former vice chancellor of the University of Oxford; Cornell University President David Skorton; and many others. Goodall explains why the most effective leaders are those who have deep expertise in what their organizations actually do. Her findings carry broad implications for the management of higher education, and she demonstrates that the same fundamental principle holds true for other important business sectors as well. Experts, not managers, make the best leaders. Read Socrates in the Boardroom and learn why.




Into the Boardroom


Book Description

Mysterious and powerful, for decades America's boardrooms have remained closed to all but a handful of director in the club. Now, former Fortune 500 exectuves Dorothy Light and Kathleen Pushor reveal an insider's look at what goes on in the boardroom and how you can get ther. CEOs and directors of some of America's most prestigious corporations share their stories of what really goes on behind closed dorrs, who gets selected to sit on a board and who doesn't, and why being a part of this influential group should be the goal of today's up and coming executives, professionals, and community leaders.




Linebacker in the Boardroom


Book Description

Welcome to My Impact Zone! My book is not a sports book, nor just a book about leadership, nor only about my time playing Notre Dame football. Linebacker in the Boardroom discusses the demand for excellence and accountability in all things we do. I talk about how those demands translate into lessons in our successes and failures in life. This book has leadership at its foundation. It is a search for our leadership inspirations. It's an examination of and a demand for personal and professional accountability, and shows you how to search for your individual opportunities to make a difference: what I call Impact Zones . To help you search for and define your Impact Zones, I developed 3E Leadership: Essential, Exceptional, and Ethical Leadership(TM) . It's a model for behavioral competencies and tools to help you transform yourself into a high-performer. On the field, in your cube, or in your office, on the factory shop floor, at your school desk, or in the boardroom, you can make an impact. Whether you view this book from a personal or professional perspective, whether you read it as a member of a work team, a community-based organization, athletic team, or religious group, whether you pick it up as the leader of a multi-billion-dollar company or as someone just starting out on your career journey, you will see how my thoughts and inspirations, successes and failures, philosophies and real-life experiences can and will have an impact on you. Welcome to the Impact Zone! Welcome to my world of 3E Leadership(TM)! Become the Essential, Exceptional, and Ethical Leader!




Great Companies Deserve Great Boards


Book Description

Despite the many changes in governance regulation over the past decade, few boards function as a true corporate asset to the companies they oversee. In this book, Behan offers practical advice that a CEO, Chairman or board member can introduce at the very next meeting. Boardrooms are filled with intelligent, accomplished people—yet seldom achieve their full potential and add the kind of value for the CEO, executive team and company shareholders that many boards are actually capable of. Beverly Behan draws on her experience working with more than 100 boards over the past 14 years—from major Fortune 500s to recent IPOs—offering no-nonsense insights that can take any board from mediocrity to the top of its game including establishing a constructive working relationship with your board; addressing some of the dysfunction that may lie within the board you’ve inherited, and making your board a significant asset to you, your company, and your executive team. Working with the Board of Directors is one of the most important components of any CEO’s job—and most will admit it is something they wish they knew more about. Nearly all CEOs want to change at least something about their board, yet many are unsure how to go about this in the right way. This book not only alerts the reader to common pitfalls that CEO's can make with their boards, it provides workable approaches to a tackle a variety of boardroom issues from getting new talent into the boardroom to engaging effectively with the board on strategy and succession planning.




CEO Excellence


Book Description

"Based on extensive interviews with today's . . . corporate leaders, this look at how the best CEOs do their jobs focuses on the mindsets and actions that foster an environment of excellence"--




Inside the Boardroom


Book Description

"Bill Bowen’s powerful insights into the principles and practices of institutional governance make his new book ‘must reading’ for all board members." —H. B. Atwater, Jr. Chairman of the Board and CEO General Mills, Inc. "The ‘old boys’ club’ of the boardroom no longer works as companies and organizations re-engineer for the global challenge. Dr. Bowen’s thoughtful and incisive analysis of issues and his prescriptions for good governance are must reading for all responsible board members." —W. Michael Blumenthal Former Secretary of the Treasury and Limited Partner, Lazard Freres & Co. "This thoughtful, lively, and well-written comparison of the many similarities and striking differences in the governance of not-for-profit and for-profit corporations is a unique resource from which both sectors will benefit.… This valuable book, and in particular its twenty ‘presumptive norms’ to govern how boards function, will certainly establish a new and important agenda for management and directors." —Helene L. Kaplan Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom "Dr. Bowen brings to Inside the Boardroom unusual qualifications: a distinguished economist who has served as university president, foundation executive, and [as a member of] several for-profit and nonprofit boards of directors. From this varied experience he combines scholarship with corporate reality in ways which provide wisdom, insight, and guidance as to how boards should work and how in fact they do work, and what they can and cannot contribute to management. Best of all, he does so in a thoroughly readable way." —Nicholas Katzenbach, Partner Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland and Perretti Former United States Attorney General Former Senior Vice President and General Counsel, IBM Corporation "This superb study rests on Bowen’s extensive experience of both corporate and nonprofit boards and his personal qualities of lucidity, perceptiveness, intellectual acuity, and fair-mindedness. Readable, fresh, jargon-free, and thoughtful, the book is a gem." —Richard W. Lyman President Emeritus, The Rockefeller Foundation President Emeritus, Stanford University "William Bowen is the finest example of America’s meritocracy. He rose, by ability and wisdom, from Main Street to the highest counsel of business and philanthropy while gaining along the way admiration for scholarly innovations as an economist and leadership as President of Princeton University. In this short book he addresses—from experience and with analytical precision—the vital problem of how outside directors might help improve governance of business corporations and non-profit institutions. Read. Ponder." —Paul A. Samuelson Nobel Laureate in Economics Department of Economics, M.I.T.