MORE NEWS & ARTICLES

June 6, 2023

Culpability for the recent financial crisis can be shared among many parties, i

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The treatment of a director on the occasion of their retirement reflects a comp

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What Directors Are Thinking

 

May 31, 2023

A book review by Howard Brod Brownstein

May 31, 2023

When looking to incentivize behavior tied to ESG goals, time-honored principles

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To achieve their desired goals, boards must analyze their decision-making proce

What the smart boards will talk about first

 

Talent is the largest driver of value creation in any organization. As the world continues to shrink and technology enables companies to accelerate growth, how employers recruit, grow and manage their most precious resource — talent — is more crucial then ever.


The author can be contacted at steve@cadiganventures.com. 

The talent strategy questions every board should ask

 

Leadership capabilities are often only noticed in their absence, but by then it may be too late: strategies have faltered and opportunities are lost. A company’s talent strategy is crucial to performance, and boards of directors must be confident that the company is promoting, recruiting, and retaining competent leaders. While many directors feel ineffective in guiding talent strategy, posing the right questions to the top leadership team can support more vigorous — and effective — talent management and help avoid shortfalls.


Nina Naerby leads the Copenhagen office of Heidrick & Struggles (www.heidrick.com). She is a member of the global Leadership Consulting, Private Equity, Consumer Markets, and Industrial practices. She focuses on searches for CEOs, strategy officers and other senior positions, and consults with clients on organizational development, assessment, succession planning, and talent management. 

The author can be contacted at nnaerby@heidrick.com.

Book it: Best bets 'for board reading

Of ‘thermostats’ and ‘thermometers’ 

From The Open Organization by Jim Whitehurst. Copyright ©2015 by Red Hat Inc. Published by Harvard Business Review Press (https://hbr.org).

Your D&O coverage: Do you have what you need ' and expect?

 

Any person who serves as a director or officer knows that a D&O policy should be purchased to protect the individual assets of those who serve the company as board members or executive officers. However, other than asking whether a D&O policy exists, most directors and officers do not know how D&O insurance works, who has access to that coverage, and whether the policy really will serve as the last line of defense against their homes, personal assets, and life savings. 


Lynda A. Bennett  is a partner with Lowenstein Sandler, based in the law firm’s New York and Roseland, N.J., offices (www.lowenstein.com). She has more than 20 years of commercial litigation experience. Her practice includes D&O, environmental, mass tort, product liability and other liability cases, and she counsels clients on contractual insurance requirements, innovative risk management tools, assessment of insurance programs, and other legal matters.

The author can be contacted at lbennett@lowenstein.com.

How CEOs succeed: 'Think big, start small, move fast'

 

Bain released research in 2012 on public companies generating above $500 million in revenues in 12 developed and emerging economies. There was no good news. Eighty percent of the 2,000 companies they assessed believed they were doing well. Yet, according to stakeholders, only about 10% were actually doing as well as they thought. And only 11% were able to sustain profitable growth.


Sandy Ogg is currently Operating Partner, Private Equity Group, at Blackstone Group LP in New York (www.blackstone.com). In this role he helps select management and board members for Blackstone’s portfolio companies. He has founded CEOWorks to advise CEOs and boards on deriving and delivering value faster (www.ceo.works). Previously, he served as chief human resources officer for Unilever PLC in London and prior to that was SVP of Leadership, Learning and Performance at Motorola Inc.

The author can be contacted at sogg@blackstone.com. This article originated from a presentation he mad eat the 2014 Wharton Leadership Conference, “Preparing for a Complex and Uncertain World”
(http://leadershipconference.wharton.upenn.edu). 

Better boards for a better world

 


Alice Korngold is president and CEO of Korngold Consulting (www.korngoldconsulting.com). She provides board advisory services and facilitates leadership retreats for executives from multinational corporations, professional services firms, and global, national, and regional nonprofits. She has trained and placed several hundred business executives and professionals on NGO/nonprofit boards. She is the author of A Better World, Inc.: How Companies Profit by Solving Global Problems . . . Where Governments Cannot (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 

The author can be contacted at alice@korngoldconsulting.com.

Resident expertise: 'Digital directors 'at the board table

 

A commercial company’s long-term viability could be threatened if there isn’t any digital expertise resident at the board table.


The author can be contacted at norbert@gottenberg.net.

Riding the technology S-curve

I’m writing this article in a plane over the Atlantic, returning from the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. More than 90,000 people attended this four-day technology feeding frenzy — representing not just mobile device manufacturers and phone networks, but app makers, accessory manufacturers, computer companies, consulting firms, cloud vendors, social media platforms, connected infrastructure outfits, online security vendors, and even various country and province governments.


Don Peppers is founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group, a unit of TeleTech Holdings Inc. He is a member of the advisory board or board of directors of five digital companies today, including one publicly traded firm, Cicero Inc. He can be contacted at dpeppers@1to1.com.

Technology: It's not 'just about cyber

 

Cyber-attacks on businesses and governments are constantly in the headlines. Corporate boards recognize the severity of this threat and are beginning to ask questions surrounding their company’s cyber capabilities. This is necessary, and a good start, but not sufficient. 


Jane Chwick is a retired partner of Goldman Sachs. She spent over 30 years with the investment firm in technology, most recently as the co-chief operating officer of the 8,000-person technology division. She is on the boards of Voya Financial and MarketAxess and is the co-founder of Trewtec Inc., a technology advisory firm designed to help directors and CEOs evaluate technology in their companies (www.trewtec.com).

The author can be contacted at jane.chwick@trewtec.com.