The Xs and Os.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

A WISE PUBLISHING veteran once said: "It strikes me that a good editor must know what the reader wants before the reader even knows he wants it. The good editor, in short, is a cultural anthropologist." But, this wise one went on to observe, "an editor is a very special sort of anthropologist: The culture he is dealing with is in constant flux."

Constant flux--well, that aptly describes the culture at the board level since the collapse of the credit markets beginning about two years ago. It seems as if you couldn't open a newspaper, magazine, or news website since 2007 and not read about some new initiative directed at reforming the corporation and its governance. Just as we had settled down a bit from Sarbanes-Oxley's shakeup in 2002, bam! ... along came the Great Recession which, in Warren Buffett's inimitable words, let the tide out so we could see who was still swimming naked in terms of their governance policies, practices, and people.

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I write this note, coincidentally enough, on the exact anniversary of my 28th year as editor of DIRECTORS & BOARDS. I showed up at the doorstep of the journal on Sep. 21, 1981. So my consciousness is particularly attuned at this moment to the "seeing around corners" role of an editor.

As we all have seen from past experience, in times of crisis it's a good idea to return to the fundamentals--the basics of blocking and tackling, as they say in the sports world. We do that throughout this edition, with substantial primers on aspects of board structure and function that you might think, "What more could be said about that?" Well, lots more! Now that we're regrouping from the devastation wrecked by the recession, with your shareholders in a foul...