Directors
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Faced with a CEO succession, many corporate directors hope an internal change agent will emerge as a viable candidate for the role. What specifically are boards looking for in these internal candidates? Our experience with CEO succession over the last several years tells us that four priorities increasingly rise to the top: The ability to…
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Genuine Commitment and Explicit Net Zero Targets [Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance]
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1 min read
As pressure mounts from stakeholders, sustainability has never been a bigger focus for boards. Investors, lawmakers, regulators, employees, and customers are all focused on sustainability, and often wonder if the board is doing enough to set up the company for long-term success in an increasingly sustainability-minded environment. Around the world—from regulators in Europe to the…
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Focusing on the Future: How Gold Medal Boards Prioritize Their Time [Russell Reynolds Associates]
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2 min read
Consciously or unconsciously, every board independently decides where it is going to focus its attention and efforts. We asked directors to reflect on their board agenda over the past 12 months and identify the top three areas where their full board has spent the most time, and we then ranked those items based on how…
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While all directors can contribute to the board’s success, the board chair has a unique set of responsibilities, both in the tone that they set, and their influence on how time and resources are deployed. The best board chairs are facilitators who get the best out of the collective expertise of the board – yet…
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Director Performance: The High Impact Behaviors of the Most Effective Directors [Russell Reynolds Associates]
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1 min read
As Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for lunch.” This is true in the best boardrooms as well. Three years ago, we identified a group we call Gold Medal Boards; those where directors rate their board’s effectiveness highly (9 or 10 on a 1–10-point scale) and where the company has outperformed relevant TSR benchmarks for…
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Sustainability: Genuine Commitment and Explicit Net Zero Targets [Russell Reynolds Associates]
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1 min read
As pressure mounts from stakeholders, sustainability has never been a bigger focus for boards. Investors, lawmakers, regulators, employees, and customers are all focused on sustainability, and often wondering if the board is doing enough to set up the company for long-term success in an increasingly sustainability-minded environment. Around the world – from regulators in Europe…
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Inclusive Culture and DE&I: Gold Medal Boards Take the Lead [Russell Reynolds Associates]
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2 min read
Around the globe, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) has grown to become a critically important boardroom topic given the increasing focus by legislatures, regulatory bodies, stock exchanges, investors, and the general public. Many of these stakeholders have enhanced their expectations around DE&I because of the growing body of research that shows improving DE&I results in…
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When 9 is the Perfect Number: the 7+2 Model for Highly Effective Boards [Russell Reynolds Associates]
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1 min read
No corporate director dreams of sitting on an ineffective board – yet many will find themselves serving on a board that underperforms relative to their expectations. As part of our 2022 Global Board Culture and Director Behaviors study, over 1,100 directors shared insights about the people they serve with, how they focus their time and…