Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask - Tapa dura

Reseña del editor

The subprime mortgage crisis caught many financial service giants unaware, and reached far beyond trading desks all the way to their boardrooms. Indeed, despite their best efforts to govern properly, boards of directors throughout almost an entire industry missed a critical issue, and compounded that problem by not having robust succession planning to stem the crisis. Can boards do better? Owning Up author Ram Charan answers with an emphatic, "Yes!" Some boards are already doing all the right things. Leadership guru Charan describes the best emerging practices for boards--with real examples of how some of the best in the business solve today's thorniest boardroom problems--and helps readers determine whether their boards are owning up to governance by asking the most vital questions. Ram Charan (Dallas, TX) is coauthor (with Larry Bossidy) of 2002's runaway bestseller Execution (978-0-609-61057-2) and author of The Leadership Pipeline (978-0-7879-5172-6) and Boards That Deliver (978-0-7879-7139-7). Charan is also a highly sought-after advisor to corporations, boards, CEOs, and senior executives.

Nota de la solapa

Owning Up

Your world as a director has suddenly changed. You've seen members of other boards take the heat when their companies imploded. The managements of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Washington Mutual clearly failed, but so did their boards. Now the board of every company beset with problems is coming under scrutiny.

The pressure is on. Your board must own up to its accountability for the performance of the corporation. Governance now means leadership.

Boards must change their modus operandi to address the new and complex issues that are emerging. These include

• Ensuring liquidity in the context of the global financial crisis

• Setting CEO performance targets in a very uncertain economy

• Assessing strategy and enterprise risk under extreme volatility

So what should boards do now? What should they be talking about in their meetings and executive sessions? What decisions must they make? How assertive must they be regarding company priorities and operating goals?

In Owning Up, business advisor and corporate governance expert Ram Charan answers these and other burning questions on the minds of directors and business leaders. He describes best practices that are emerging in boardrooms he has observed firsthand. And he provides practical recommendations on a range of issues, from compensation to dealing with external constituencies. Wisely attuned to the human side, he confronts the need for some boards to refresh their composition and for others to rebalance their board dynamics.

Directors, CEOs, general counsels, and operating executives will find here the guidance they need to meet the new and rising standards for corporate governance in this demanding business environment.