Directors and supervisors equally face tough choices as they choose amount and the quality of information the board receives and uses in its governance and fiduciary roles. The authors' research indicates that tomorrow's boardroom will be reshaped by three associated forces: First, they confront an exhaustive rethinking, brought on by stakeholders that are concerned, of managers' advice needs. In reacting to these pressures, boards and management must beat several impediments: caution about altering the dynamics of the present supervisor-director relationship; directors' lack of needed skills for interpreting the new info; and the inertia of cultural norms. They confront remarkable improvements in the performance assessment approaches used to direct boards' decision making.
The core of a healthy advice relationship between directors and supervisors is their agreement on the most useful performance metrics to track and evaluate. Finally, boards and managers confront the adoption of technologies that support board functions that are crucial. After accessibility to such info is allowed, new technologies can help directors use and obtain it. Board members may use tools that, for instance, enable alerts that are helpful and improved visualizations. And managers may engage in electronic "what if" evaluations, using business data in addition to outside information - linked, say, to competing businesses - which is becoming increasingly accessible online.
PUBLICATION DATE: January 01, 2009 PRODUCT #: SMR305-PDF-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about LEADERSHIP & MANAGING PEOPLE
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