Back to the Drawing Board

CHAPTER nine

Getting Down to Work

BOARDS ARE A CONUNDRUM. TAKE A GROUP OF PART-time directors and present them with an extremely difficult job, but give them very limited time together. And then charge this institution with ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the nation’s most important economic assets are well managed. How can such an unlikely arrangement work?

It works only because of the commitment of the women and men who serve as directors. That’s why, in this concluding chapter, we’re going to get personal. The challenge going forward is to drive the changes necessary to make tomorrow’s boards more effective than today’s. We want to talk about what you, as individual board members, need to do to implement the changes we’ve been proposing. ...