Improving Corporate Boards: The Boardroom Insider Guidebook (Paper with CD-ROM)

I run a small ($20M sales) manufacturing company, and have had an outside Board for about 13 years. I was recently asked to prepare a 3-hour presentation about Boards for a group of small-business CEOs, so I purchased three books to help me with the presentation. In spite of having years of experience with Boards, I learned a lot from these books. They are: 5 Steps to Board Success, Mark Daly. A very methodical, step-by-step approach to creating a Board. Excellent if you are entirely new to the process, particularly for small companies, but a bit weak on some topics (e.g., committees) for larger companies. Includes a variety of forms and example documents that would really help get started. 5 stars for small, closely-held companies, 4 stars overall. Creating Effective Boards for Private Enterprises, John Ward. An excellent book covering in much more detail than "5 Steps" the nature of Boards, their duties and obligations, etc. Not as strong on the mechanics of forming a Board, but very strong on how to maximize the value of your board. 5 Stars if you already have a Board, 4 stars overall. Improving Corporate Boards, Ralph Ward. Appropriate for larger corporations with functioning boards. Many good topics and bits of information, plus a lot of references to web resources, with whole chapters on audit and compensation committees. Is the only one of the three to give minutes and document retention adequate coverage. Includes a chapter on how to become a Board member, and how to improve your performance if you are one. 4 Stars - good info but aimed at larger, already-functioning boards. A bit haphazard in organization. I heavily flagged pages in all three books, and learned a lot from them all. Each has a different focus, so the amount of overlap was surprisingly small.

This new book is a home run for shareholders desiring greater accountability from the boards of directors they have hired as caretakers of their funds; and gives directors a handy reference book chock full of practical tools that practically every company will find useful.After investing in public and private companies for over 30 years, serving on numerous public and private company boards, reading dozens of books and hundreds of articles on improving company boards and better corporate governance - this is the best I have come across. Companies should provide a copy of this book for each of their directors as a matter of policy, and investors should read it to discover valuable new insights into the crucial but often forgotten links between director quality, accountability, conflicts of interest and stock price performance.

One of the most frequent requests from readers of CorpGov.Net is for a book on how to improve their board. Finally I can recommend a book that doesn't read like a dry academic text and is built on real life examples. Finally, a clear guide to solving the most common problems facing boards. Each chapter provides a concise overview of a problem or focus area, several real life examples, internet resources, advice from various experts and a checklist summary. CalPERS should be sending Mr. Ward's book to each board member of the companies on its focus list.