A prime target: a personal rebellion against 'think-alike' boards motivated the founding of Directors & Boards.

• Author: Reed, Stanley Foster
• Position: ENDNOTE - Excerpt

Ed. Note: Stanley Foster Reed, founder of DIRECTORS & BOARDS, died on Oct. 25, 2007, at the age of 90 (see tribute by his daughter, Alexandra Reed Lajoux, on page 28.) The following article is from an essay he composed for the journal's 20th anniversary edition published in 1996.

AT THE END of the 20th century, a French pharmacist-turned-hypnotist-turned-self-motivationist, Emile Coue by name, believed that people would be happier and more productive if they could get to know and like themselves. And he persuaded millions of the French citoyens to stand in front of a mirror and repeat over and over, "Tous les jours, a tous les points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux."

Coueism was soon exported to America and soon millions of Americans were persuaded to gaze back at themselves in the mirror and repeat: "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better."

Good directors must know themselves and know what they are good at before they can provide good advice and effective guidance to management. Both individually and as a board, they must look at themselves and ask if they really are getting better and better.

The answer is often no. But why?

Because good corporate governance comes from the joint efforts of directors with known abilities formed into a group with complementary talents. It does not come from groups of people brought together because they enjoy each other's company.

I came to this opinion back in the 1960s serving on the boards of a number of companies where board membership was the result of...