High Performance Boards

A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation.

When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, while fostering positive social impact and economic value creation. At all levels, executives around the world are faced with complexities rising from disruptive business models, new technologies, socio-economic changes, shifting political circumstances, and an array of other sources. High Performance Boards is the comprehensive manual for attaining best-in-class governance, offering pragmatic guidance on improving board quality, accountability, and performance.

This authoritative volume identifies the four dimensions, or pillars, which are crucial for establishing and maintaining best-practice boards: the people involved, the information architecture, the structures and processes, and the group dynamics and culture of governance. This methodology can be applied to any board in the world, corporate or non-profit organization, regardless of size, sector, industry, or context. Readers are introduced to a fictitious senior board member - an amalgamation of board members from well-known organisations - and follow her as she successfully handles real-life challenges with effective governance. Drawn from the author's 20 years of practice and confidential work with boards across the world, this book:

• Demonstrates how high-performance boards innovate and refine their practices
• Discusses examples of board failures and challenges, including case studies from both for-profit and non-profit organisations including international organizations and state-owned agencies or even ministries
• Provides a proven framework to create best-in-class governance
• Includes a companion website featuring tools for board assessment and board practice

High Performance Boards has inspired more than 3000 board members around the world. This book is essential reading for professionals and managers interested in governance and board members, senior managers, investors, lawyers, and students of governance.

DIDIER COSSIN is a professor at IMD, Switzerland and the founder and director of the IMD Global Board Center. He is the originator of the Four Pillars of Board Effectiveness methodology and an advocate of stewardship. He is the author and co-author of books such as Inspiring Stewardship, book chapters (such as Governance Risk: A Guide for Investors) and many articles in the fields of governance, investments, risks and stewardship, several of which have obtained citations of excellence or other awards.

Didier works with asset owners, government officials, central bankers, boards and senior leaders to provide the latest thinking on best-in-class governance, board effectiveness, the governance of investments, board dynamics and strategy design. He favors an adaptive and interactive approach to finding distinctive solutions for organisations on a wide range of governance topics. His latest research focuses on stewardship, how we can foster organisations to have long-term positive social impact while creating economic value for all. His past research has dealt with optimising governance in critical decision-making situations (large investments, key personnel changes, M&As, strategic turnarounds and organisational threats). Didier also supports some leading non-profit organisations at fine-tuning their governance for impact.