Governance: How Does Your Board Compare?
A McKinsey article, published in late March, summarized the results of a global survey that generated responses from 586 corporate directors, 51 percent of them CEOs or other C-level executives. Respondents represented 376 private and 161 public companies; the remainder work at nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Twenty-six percent of the companies represented in the survey have annual revenues of $1 billion or more.
The file, above, is a Word table that summarizes the major conclusions of the study.
In summary, the majority of survey respondents said they want to give “higher priority to talent management and forward-looking strategies that maximize shareholder value, and spend less time dealing with issues such as compliance” (Sarbanes Oxley is mandatory for many for-profit organizations, and the time spent in compliance appears to have outworn its welcome).
Fortunately, for non-profits, we have not been burdened with the mandatory time and expense in connection with Sarbanes Oxley--which makes sense inasmuch as few non-profit business and governance models run the risks at the same levels that exist in the for-profit sector, and that led to the Sarbanes Oxley regulations. It is an interesting commentary that corporate board survey respondents now say that want to change priority from compliance to strategy and talent management--from reactive to proactive leadership--which are similar issues and challenges faced by non-profit boards and executives.
Back to the survey conclusions, when compared to how the survey participant's boards currently spend their time, the table in the file above summarizes where the largest percentage of respondents said they wanted to spend “more” time, and “less” time, as well as their responses of agreement or disagreement with other characterizations of their boards.
The full article can be found at: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Governance/Boards/Making_the_board_more_strategic_A_McKinsey_Global_Survey_2124_abstract
How does your board compare with the comments from the survey respondents?
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