Advice for CEOs

Stephen Covey once said, “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” Growth company CEOs should pay attention to this maxim. Mid-February is a perfect time to reflect on where your company stands in this regard, paying special attention to diversity within your board and among your senior executives and partners.

Newport Board Group Managing Director for the Pacific Northwest, Colleen Brown, has been named Chairwoman of the Board of American Apparel, Inc., the company announced on December 22, 2014.

In reflecting on many years of experience on boards, as a Chair and board member of companies and non-profit organizations and as a CEO, I believe that the roles of a company board can be boiled down to five:

In the first part of this article I explained the contrast between a “working” and an “approval” board. A review of the Boards of successful companies, such as those of Exxon, Google, and Nestle, provides an interesting comparison with those of struggling companies such as JC Penny, NYSERTA, or Hewlett Packard.

Experienced Board Directors have typically been exposed to a variety of Board operating styles: from hands-on to very hands-off. Which style is best? The answer, of course, depends on the nature of the organization and the objectives of the Board. But even more important than style is a more basic issue: how Board members see their role.