Corporate Boards: New Strategies for Adding Value.

• Author: BARRETT, BARBARA M.
• Position: Review

Jay A. Conger

Edward E. Lawler III

David L. Finegold

IN THIS NEWLY PUBLISHED book on corporate governance, the authors combine extensive interviews with business executives along with their own academic theorizing to discuss the structure, responsibilities, and practices of American corporate boards. The result is a collection of proposed principles and suggested practices both for boards and, occasionally, their committees.

The stated intent of the book is to offer new strategies for adding value at the top" in a time of rapid change and shifting corporate directions. The authors advance this intent with several informative, focused, and thoughtful chapters offering principles and practices -- most of which are not new but are a handy compilation of practices frequently advocated, and adopted, by effective corporate boards.

Many readers will undoubtedly find Corporate Boards a useful reference in that it contains the collective insight of interviewees with many years of board experience. Sensible and practical suggestions guide the reader through key attributes of effective boards -- knowledge, information, power, rewards and opportunity, and time -- as well as such compelling governance issues as the board's leadership and structure, strategic guidance and advice, CEO evaluation, board evaluation, resource procurement, and crisis management.

The authors' use of examples of governance techniques employed by high-profile companies helps bring life to this important topic. Most of the practical content of Corporate Boards is admittedly geared toward and derived from Fortune 1000-level companies. Still, smaller companies may benefit from implementation of some of the principles and practices employed by larger organizations.

Distracting from their strong, focused discussions of board leadership, information needs, and evaluation techniques, the authors fumble a deserved chapter on governing in the age of the Internet with a light discussion, much of which seems to precede the crash of the dot-coin craze.

Worse, late in the book the authors blur their credible research when they superimpose their philosophical perspective on the otherwise practical text. The authors, who are affiliated with the University of Southern California's Center for Effective Organizations, argue their view of American public corporations as social entities rather than property of the shareholders...