How Marcy Syms prepares for board meetings.

• Author: Hall, April
• Position: Survival Guide

Marcy Syms goes into board meetings with one thing on her mind--profitability. Not only profitability for shareholders, but for all stakeholders. She considers this the difference between short-term and long-term goals.

"Corporate America is on a destructive course that shareholders are final arbiters," Syms says. "It's a losing proposition to stay the same. It is not an option."

But she says while shareholders may lose shares or money, directors have their reputation on the line whenever they make a critical decision. Those decisions are made for the "success" of the company, a bigger concept than dollars and cents.

An effective board member must have, she says, three C's: "character, courage and commitment."

Syms, a great supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, says discussions In the boardroom are also diving "rightfully" into issues like sustainability, greater social responsibility and diversity.

"Knowledge of technology and impact on the environment has leaped exponentially in a way that we couldn't imagine and may not be catching up with fast enough."

Management and directors need to ask, "What world do you want your grandchildren to live in?," she advises. It's something she keeps in mind when she's considering board issues.

"You want your grandchildren to live in a world where they can experience health, opportunity and community. You need to find those broader issues to have a holistic view of the future. That's no political, it's human."

This moment in time, she explains, may be the best opportunity to fix the problems created by the industrial revolution. It's possible that decisions made today could lead to something like repurposing or re-engineering to make all plastics disappear, affecting waterways, landfills and the greening of America.

Activist shareholders who are just looking for bigger profits are undermining what Syms considers the responsibility of a corporation to the community, to work, grow and prosper, and to contribute taxes.

Syms is also a founding board member and president of the Sy Syms Foundation, a nonprofit focused on supporting education which was established in 1985 by her father Sy who started Syms Corp, an off-price chain of retail stores...