There has never been a more critical time to get smart people a seat at the organisations’ table. The science and art around how to lead and direct organisations has become a critical subject to be studied and, more importantly, enhanced. In a well-structured organisation, the Board of Directors is the highest governing body in hierarchy and control. According to Investopedia, a board of directors is an elected group of individuals that represent shareholders.
The board plays a vital role in corporate governance; the board hires the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director (MD) of an organisation and assess its overall direction and strategy. The success of many large organisations relies greatly on good corporate governance.
From the boardroom to the triple bottom line, corporate governance has been hailed as one powerful tool that brought about the sustainability of successful organisations in this competitive era. While corporate governance is beneficial to large organisations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can glean such experiences to improve their company value. In the long run, this could bring about new markets and improved business practices that can be ground-breaking in their daily business dealings.
The origins of good corporate governance date back to many years, as far back as the 18th century where its first seeds were sown in the East and the West (Masons, 2013). The collapse of Enron and WorldCom, the global financial crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic have led to corporate governance becoming a key focus for many organisations.
According to Sun (2016), corporate governance is “a way a corporation polices itself”. It is regarded as a method of governing a company like a sovereign state, instating its customs, policies and laws to its employees from the highest to the lowest levels”. This definition in itself shows the importance and power of Boards in an organisations success.
Because of the sensitivity of a board’s composition, board selection is a critical assignment that must not be taken lightly by organisations. The inadequacy of conventional wisdom and skill have been traced as one of the key reasons Boards and invariably organisations fail. At pcl. our Board Selection service involves partnering with clients who desire to reconfigure their board composition to address a business need or to replace an exiting member or organisations at the “scale-up stage” and wish to constitute a board for the first time. This assignment is done with the utmost skill leveraging strategic networks as well as experience in undertaking similar assignments.
Our competitive advantage is our established presence in the Nigerian market for over 28 years, which means we have developed key contacts with heads of industries over the years. We are skilled at working with the internal nominating committee to identify potential candidates with the needed competence to assume a board position. If you require our Board Selection service, kindly contact us. Send an email to people@phillipsconsulting.net today.
Written by:
Joshua Ademuwagun
Head of Advisory, People Transformation
REFERENCES
- Radebe M. Sarah (2017). The benefits of good corporate governance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa: A view on top 20 and bottom 20 JSE listed companies. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 15(4), 271- 279. doi:10.21511/ppm.15(4-1).2017.11
- Masons, P. (2013). The Benefits of Good Practice for Private Companies in the GCC.
- Sun, L. (2016). Why Is Corporate Governance Important? Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary. com/article/618/why-is-corporategovernance-is-important/ (accessed on April 13, 2016).