A new era of responsibility.

• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

I'M WRITING THIS on the day after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's new President. If the title of this column looks familiar, I'm unabashedly borrowing a main theme of the President's political governance because it applies as purposefully to the world of corporate governance.

Let's face it: Capitalism has not been good to capitalism. Frankly, boards have let down the nation and its capital markets. Boards have not had the right leaders in place; they have not adequately analyzed risk; they have not had the depth of knowledge of their company's operations that they should have had; they have not done a sufficient job of helping management see the big picture in front of them and in seeing around corners as to what lies ahead; and they have not acted smartly and speedily as conditions deteriorated and management faltered.

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In short, boards not only have not added value, they have detracted from value. And that's simply unforgivable. We all know the names of the enterprises--some still with us, some not--that this accusation applies to. Others will manifest themselves as this year grinds on.

"You don't want to waste a good crisis," famously said Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's chief of staff. Agreed. Let's use this present financial crisis to examine anew the workings of the corporate governance system and the people and processes within it. You will see that intention carried out in the pages of DIRECTORS & BOARDS throughout this year.

In this edition, we devote several articles to analyzing board processes and dynamics. Mel Bergstein, our cover story author, draws upon his...