Managers and directors alike face difficult choices as they decide on the quality and quantity of information that the board receives and uses in its governance and fiduciary roles. As consequences of the recent crises such as the subprime mortgage debacle illustrates, both parties need to solve the problem of "information asymmetry" - the gap between the information available to management and the Board. The study authors suggest that courtroom tomorrow will be changed to three interrelated forces: first, they are faced with a thorough rethinking caused by stakeholders, director of information needs. In response to this pressure, the board and management have to overcome several obstacles: a warning about changing the dynamics of the present manager-director relationship, the lack of Directors the necessary skills to interpret new information, and the inertia of cultural norms. Second, they face a significant improvement in the assessment of the effectiveness of the approaches used for decision-making councils. The basis of a healthy relationship information between managers and directors is their agreement on the most useful performance indicators for monitoring and evaluation. This is to build trust and facilitate loading and more relevant on the board (being exempt from having to decode packets of data, and gains a certain independence from management, sometimes selfish votes). Finally, boards and managers are faced with the adoption of technologies that support critical functions in the board. Once access to such information is available, the new technology can help directors get and use it. Board members may use the tools that, for example, allow improved visualization and useful warnings. And directors may participate in electronic "what-if" analysis, using data from the company, and for the information - associated with, say, their competitors -. Which is becoming increasingly available on the Internet "Hide
by Robert J. Thomas, Michael Schrage, Joshua Bellin, George Marcotte Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 8 pages. Publication Date: January 1, 2009. Prod. #: SMR305-PDF-ENG
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