High Performance Boards: A Practical Guide to Improving and Energizing Your Governance

"Didier Cossin's High Performance Boards covers aspects of culture and organisational design that are foundational to any successful institution. This comprehensive study captures real-world insights on quality governance and effective leadership. It connects his four- pillar methodology for gauging and improving board effectiveness, learning from both failure and success and boardroom best practice. It is a valuable tool for present and future directors."
―Mark Tucker, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc

"Recent developments in the financial services industry dramatically illustrate the intimate link between good governance and a company's success or failure, particularly in times of crisis. In his latest book, Didier Cossin sheds light on the design principles and practice that underpin good governance. A catchy and comprehensive textbook for those in charge!"
―Sergio Ermotti, Group CEO and President of the Executive Board of UBS AG

The most up-to-date version of the gold standard in board governance

In the newly revised second edition of High Performance Boards: A Practical Guide to Improving & Energizing your Governance, author Didier Cossin delivers an incisive and practical roadmap to board governance best-practices. Accessible to professionals from a variety of backgrounds, the book lays out the foundational and advanced concepts you'll need to understand to effectively govern a for-profit firm, non-profit, or government entity.

You'll learn to manage risk, increase the impact of your board, consider and evaluate the importance of ESG metrics, take into account geopolitics, and supervise your organization's culture. You'll also discover:

• Extensive revisions to existing chapters, including new methods of cyber-risk management and stakeholder management
• Strategies for avoiding the common pitfall of ‘greenwashing’
• Increasingly common new activism techniques undertaken by boards and investors to shape the behaviour of organizations

An indispensable resource for board members and directors serving on boards at organizations of all kinds, High Performance Boards will also earn a place on the bookshelves of corporate lawyers, board secretaries, and students of corporate governance. For additional materials to the book, please see didiercossin.com.

Didier Cossin, Lausanne, Switzerland, is the founder and director of the IMD Global Board Center and the originator of the Four Pillars of Board Effectiveness methodology. In his work with boards, Professor Cossin helps them enhance organizational performance through strategy involvement, best-in-class decision making, enhancing board culture and general governance (including board restructurings). Professor Cossin is an advisor and/or executive teacher with the United Nations, the central banks of several countries, ministries as well as sovereign wealth funds and supranational organizations (including the European Central Bank, IFC, IOC), the boards or executive committees of corporations, financial institutions and funds in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. He has worked extensively with the oil and gas industry (Schlumberger, Shell, Sinopec, Saudi Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, and others) and the banking industry (HSBC, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, ICBC and others), but also with many other industries, including media, luxury goods, retail, shipping, and asset management. He also advises some leading non-profit organizations (UNICEF, the Red Cross) on governance issues. Didier is a member of the Risk Who's Who Society, the American Finance Association, the Eastern Finance Association, and the European Finance Association.

IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, is an independent university institute with campuses in Lausanne and Singapore. For more than 75 years, IMD has been a pioneering force in developing leaders who transform organizations and contribute to society. IMD has been ranked in the top three of the FT's Executive Education Rankings (combined ranking for open & custom programs) since 2012. It has also been in the top four for 18 consecutive years.
Since 2004, IMD has sustained the premier "triple-crown" of AACSB, European Foundation for Management Development EQUIS, and AMBA accreditations, and, in 2022, IMD earned Swiss institutional accreditation, confirming IMD's commitment to delivering the highest quality teaching, research and services.