Boards

How companies can build a long-term strategy that will keep them secure.

More than ever, companies need leaders who are good with people.

They must be woven into your strategy and differentiate your company.

Or risk being left behind.

When reward systems fail, don’t blame the program—look at the premise behind it.

Hit the ground running with a thoughtful personal pitch.

Don’t wait for a crisis to have tough conversations.

In the wake of meltdowns at WorldCom, Tyco, and Enron, enormous attention has been focused on the companies' boards. It seems inconceivable that business...

Attention to how much CEOs are paid diverts public attention from how they are paid. A statistical analysis of executive compensation concludes that top...

And window dressing doesn’t cut it.

Leadership transitions go awry with alarming frequency, often the result of an emotionally charged power struggle between the CEO and his would-be heir. Four practices, however, can help successors defuse the crisis—and make it to the top.

When a CEO leaves because of performance problems, the company typically recruits someone thought to be better equipped to fix what the departing executive...

The questions that boards, managers, and shareholders should be asking.

For too long, boards have relied on rules of thumb and conventional wisdom when picking CEOs. New research offers some surprising insights that will better...

“Did I find it frustrating as the White House Chief of Staff? Toughest job I ever had, but…if you find it unpleasant to cope with a complex problem that is simultaneously the business of four or five Cabinet departments, several public interest groups, and the Congress, and one that the President will finally decide, then […]

When a crisis forces outside directors to navigate major changes, investors and directors must adopt new roles. The largest such case to date provides some useful lessons. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group was a 60/40 joint venture between Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading. It was run by a five-person committee of managing directors […]

Judging from how they're portrayed in the media, it would be easy to dismiss family businesses as hotbeds of power-playing, backstabbing, and favor-currying,...

Send this post to your board, anonymously. I was working on a project recently in which several multimillion-dollar nonprofit organizations were considering participating in a community fundraising campaign. The executive directors of most of the organizations had to go to their boards of directors to get approval to sign a nonbinding letter stating that their […]

Gill Corkindale, executive coach and former management editor of the Financial Times. While nepotism is accepted in some countries, it poses dangers. These include damaged morale when employees hired by family underperform on the job or receive special treatment.

Some start-up CEOs have too much power. Here’s what to do about it.