Board Evaluations

Staff get appraised on a regular basis(hopefully!),the financial accounts get audited,and businesses carry out as a matter of course a range of reviews and checks.

But how often is the performance of the Board of Directors evaluated?

The Uk Corporate Governance Code prescribes that for listed companies an annual evaluation of the Board is to be undertaken. From June 2010 for FTSE 350 companies, this should be undertaken at least once every 3 years and this should be conducted by an external independent facilitator /consultant. While this requirement is only for listed companies there is nothing stopping any business/organisation to perform such a check.

We can carry this out in a variety of ways:

One to one confidential interviews
Questionnaires
Away days together which we will facilitatec
Full diagnosis and analysis

Each business/organisation by necessity will be different.

As a “taster” have a look at the following.

Are you happy with the answers?

We are happy at the composition of our Board/Executive team
Meetings are very well run
Non executive directors are truly impartial and give added value
Meetings are well chaired
We can clearly articulate our company’s vision,mission and strategy
Strategy gets debated regularly at meetings and is not crowded out by operational issues
The Board agenda is always well managed
The Board receives an intelligent and timeous dashboard of the company’s performance
Decisions are taken by the whole Board
We have clear and measurable objectives
All the stakeholders are on board
We have a  good and collective understanding of the risks facing our business
Assumptions about our business model are regularly challenged
There is a solid process for strategy creation
Board papers are always sent out in good time ahead of meetings