Leadership and Governance from the Inside Out.

• Author: Lapides, Paul D.
• Position: DIRECTOR LIBRARY - Book Review

Leadership and Governance from the Inside Out

Edited by Robert Gandossy and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Published by John Wiley & Sons, N.J., 297 pages, $34.95

ARE YOU CHALLENGED to create and sustain world-class organizations in a post-Enron/Sarbanes-Oxley world? Have you felt overwhelmed by SOX, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the new governance rating industry, or the myriad experts spouting conflicting advice about corporate governance? Are you responsible for making decisions to maximize shareholder returns, while managing risk and building win-win relationships with your customers, employees, suppliers, and others? Do you provide legal, accounting, or management advice to directors and officers?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Leadership and Governance from the Inside Out was written for you.

If you are like most corporate directors and officers, and nearly anyone else who reads the business press, you have read a lot about governance in the last few years. In fact, you have probably read and heard more on this topic in the last three years than you have in the last 30 years combined. Enough already! That's what I thought when I was asked to review this book. I was wrong.

This volume is worth reading and studying. Perhaps this is why it received glowing praise from such wide-ranging opinion leaders as GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, as well as CNBC commentator Jim Cramer and shareholder activist Greg Taxin of Glass Lewis.

Leadership and Governance is unlike any of the dozens of governance books published in the last few of years. While there are many excellent books available, most are written by individual authors with a fairly prescriptive perspective. What distinguishes this book is its depth and scope of opinions on the topics of governance, leadership, and decision making.

Leadership and Governance is a collection of writings by 27 individuals--CEOs, presidents, corporate directors, regulators, academics, governance thought leaders, and one whistleblower. Without preaching a set of rules that every board should adopt, the book will make you feel as if you have been invited to participate in a vigorous discussion with some of the best and brightest corporate leaders and thinkers.

The book is edited by Robert Gandossy of Hewitt Associates and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean for executive programs at the Yale School of Management. Both have been studying and writing about...