The corporate board of directors is a group of well-meaning, part-time amateurs, trying to monitor, control and assure the work of the full-time professional managers who actually run the corporation. That means at best, your board will be several steps behind in having an accurate, current, complete insight into the company, its operations, its finances, and its dangers. At worst, you could, sometime in the future, find yourself giving a deposition trying to prove that you never noticed something regulators, attorneys, and shareholders in retrospect say should have been obvious.
The best practice board must have effective financial and operational controls. Unfortunately, most internal controls are set up for the use of financial, compliance, legal or other staff… and not the board. Our program looks at how your board should structure itself for effective risk oversight; where hidden dangers are most often found; internal risks the board must watch for; and how to shape reporting and corporate controls that give you the info you need, when you need it.
From financial crises, to corporate scandals, to pandemics, to "black swan" dangers, the past decade has seen too many of the world's companies shocked by risks and exposures. Yet the board’s independent directors face many risk oversight obstacles. They spend too little time in the workings of the company… management has many incentives to assure boards that everything is fine… the information directors see is often stale, limited, or hard to follow… and vital corporate financial and operational controls are designed for the use of managers (not the board). How can your board build effective risk management oversight into its skills?
From financial crises, to corporate scandals, to pandemics, to "black swan" dangers, the past decade has seen too many of the world's companies shocked by risks and exposures. Yet the board’s independent directors face many risk oversight obstacles. They spend too little time in the workings of the company… management has many incentives to assure boards that everything is fine… the information directors see is often stale, limited, or hard to follow… and vital corporate financial and operational controls are designed for the use of managers (not the board). How can your board build effective risk management oversight into its skills?
Ralph Ward
Ralph Ward is an internationally-recognized speaker, writer, and advisor on the role of boards of directors, how “benchmark” boards excel, setting personal boardroom goals, and the future of governance worldwide. Ward is publisher of the online newsletter Boardroom INSIDER, the worldwide source for practical, first-hand tips for better boards and directors (www.boardroominsider.com). He also edits The Corporate Board magazine (www.corporateboard.com) the nation's leading corporate governance journal, with subscribers who are directors and senior officers across the U.S. and in 27 foreign countries.He is author of six acclaimed books on board and governance for today’s corporate boards, the challenges …
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