Boards

Hitting the hiring bull’s-eye is one of an executive’s most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can get in the way, but a pointed and systematic approach can virtually guarantee success.

Questions that every board should be asking itself right now.

Bonuses and other forms of incentive compensation are an effective motivator of executives to achieve ever higher earnings per share. The drive to produce short-term results, however, often influences management to forgo investment in capital equipment and R&D that would benefit the corporation several years hence even more than improved earnings next year would. The […]

Pandemics, global warming, cyberattacks, and other catastrophes are a question of when, not if.

Because board meetings involve two groups-directors and managers-and because directors play a difficult dual role as both cops and advisers, boardroom...

If the CEO sits in the hot seat, the CFO’s chair is positively smoking. According to analysis conducted by the CFO Executive Board, annual CFO turnover at the largest 162 global companies between 1995 and 2003 was 17%—even higher than for CEOs—and three out of four current Fortune 500 finance officers have been in their […]

When the world's largest financial institutions had to be rescued from insolvency in 2008, many experts laid the blame at the feet of corporate boards....

Many leaders taking on new roles try to prove themselves early on by going after quick wins - fresh, visible contributions to the business. But in the...

A good board can be rocket fuel or it can be rocks in an organization’s pockets. Much of success and failure in the boardroom comes down to the way the individuals around the table — be it on a public company board, a small private board, or a non-profit board — do their jobs. So […]

What's wrong with executive compensation, and what can we do about it? HBR and the University of Delaware's Center for Corporate Governance convened a...

Lessons from new research.

Today's leaders are leapfrogging traditional candidates.

When the US pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, approved the compensation of the top executives at seven troubled financial institutions, he insisted that they all appoint an independent director as the board chair rather than the CEO. Several major investors — the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which manages $400 billion in assets, among them — […]

Much has been written and said regarding News Corp and its activities in the UK, and serious questions have been raised about the leadership and culture of this company. Some of these questions have been directed at the company’s board of directors: did it properly fulfill its independent fiduciary responsibilities in overseeing this global organization? […]

Companies change, and so should the way tenure is managed.

Have a process, but tailor it to each individual.

How do family businesses handle succession? What happens when siblings compete for the position of CEO? Can nonfamily board members navigate successfully...

The last official report on the April 2010 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig was issued on September 16th. And yet the ultimate question remains:...

This post is part of our in-depth look at Obama's First 90 Days in office. What a difference a few days can make to the trajectory of a transition. At...

A Roundtable with Philip Caldwell, George D. Kennedy, G. G. Michelson, Henry Wendt, and Alfred M. Zeien The selection of a CEO is one of the most important decisions a board of directors makes. Not only does a chief executive have an enormous impact on the fortunes of a company, but the very process by […]