The Turnaround Playbook Works. Why Wait For A Crisis?
The discipline that saves companies in distress can also drive stronger performance in healthy ones.
Corporate Board Member
Since 1998, Corporate Board Member has served as the preeminent board leadership publication for directors and senior executives of publicly traded companies.
Insights
Analysis and perspective on the most important governance issues facing boards today.
The discipline that saves companies in distress can also drive stronger performance in healthy ones.
Thanks to lawyers financed by hedge funds, even losing cases are now worth billions.
As the SEC opens a path for trading blockchain tokens tied to company stock in the U.S., it’s a good time to dig into the implications for your organization.
Tesla’s new shareholder voting program promises greater participation, but only lets investors automatically vote with the board, not against it.
Value and ROI are fully interdependent. Too often, the sequence of inquiry is reversed—and that is a governance problem for management and board alike.
Board members face greater demands, scrutiny and accountability than ever. Their compensation should reflect the realities of the modern boardroom.
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Digital version of the latest articles published in Corporate Board Member.
Jason Warner, technology lifer and CEO of Poolside AI, makes a compelling—and contrarian— case against the current AI zeitgeist. ‘You just have to adapt. You have to start building it.’
Selected by his peers as CBM’s Director of the Year, Royal Caribbean Group’s John F. Brock III reflects on one of the cruise industry’s most significant leadership transitions, the evolving role of the lead independent director and governance practices that help boards add value.
In a new book, bestselling author James Patterson’s lifetime of upending the status quo offers a roadmap for leaders stuck in neutral.
Raj Gupta, veteran of 15 public company boards, including Hewlett-Packard, DuPont, Tyco, Arconic, Airgas and Delphi/Aptiv, says a new era of disruption requires a new kind of governance. More strategic. More engaged. More focused. His playbook for a brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible world.
With informers and subpoenas, the Trump administration wants to root out preferences of any kind.
As history shows, boards that cling to static models risk falling behind. Here are six strategic moves to help boards refresh their composition, stay ahead of disruption, and build governance fit for the future.
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Tesla’s new shareholder voting program promises greater participation, but only lets investors automatically vote with the board, not against it.
For AI, boards need a repeatable oversight discipline, not a collection of presentations about pilots. Answering these five questions can help.
As science, technology and other specialized capabilities become more central to strategy, boards need to ask whether their own expertise and oversight have kept pace. The beauty industry offers a revealing case study.
S&P 500 boards appointed fewer directors this year, but more of these new directors have proven executive leadership experience. Here’s what corporate board members might want to consider.
Carrying reasoning and decision history forward is becoming more urgent as directors adopt AI tools faster than boards establish policies for their use.
Such minimal support of anti-DEI proposals across several categories indicates shareholder interest in this issue appears to be waning.
Value and ROI are fully interdependent. Too often, the sequence of inquiry is reversed—and that is a governance problem for management and board alike.
The question boards should be asking: How can technology help us make better use of the knowledge we already have?
How board behavior shapes market confidence.
Ten years ago, I argued that high-performing boards should stop playing defense and become a source of competitive advantage. In 2026, with activist campaigns at all-time highs and executives openly questioning director performance, that argument is now a survival requirement.
Selected by his peers as CBM’s Director of the Year, Royal Caribbean Group’s John F. Brock III reflects on one of the cruise industry’s most significant leadership transitions, the evolving role of the lead independent director and governance practices that help boards add value.
AI productivity numbers are green. Whether your workforce is amplifying or eroding remains invisible. That gap belongs on the board pack.
The discipline that saves companies in distress can also drive stronger performance in healthy ones.
With companies facing increasing headwinds, it’s important for directors to reevaluate how they contribute to corporate strategy. Here’s what to consider.
New research from Corporate Board Member and EY Center for Board Matters finds boards are devoting more time to risk and largely satisfied with the information they receive. The bigger challenge: turning those insights into strategic action.
If your ‘AI strategy’ lives separately from your value creating strategy you can have internal competition, not convergence.
Sixty percent of directors say their boards have increased time on risk oversight over the past two years—but fewer than half report closer integration with strategy.
Against a backdrop of accelerating disruption across technology, geopolitics and talent markets, making ever-faster, high-stakes decisions with increasingly imperfect information is the norm. Here’s how six CEOs are adapting.
Use the first three months to understand the program, challenge inherited assumptions and establish an effective committee rhythm before pursuing change.
Long-term AI investments can complicate incentive plan outcomes, but management should generally remain accountable for the costs unless they materially distort the assessment of management performance.
When it comes to succession planning, a new study by CBM and Farient Advisors finds compensation committees moving deeper into succession planning—but directors say pay should support the process, not become the strategy.
Just 10 percent of boards currently tie CEO pay to AI outcomes—but nearly a third expect the issue on their agenda soon, as pressure to show AI returns builds.
Your shareholders may be losing billions a year from the way you run your equity plans.
As AI reshapes business performance, compensation committees face new governance questions around measurement integrity, accountability and whether existing incentive frameworks still reflect how value is created.
Value and ROI are fully interdependent. Too often, the sequence of inquiry is reversed—and that is a governance problem for management and board alike.
Jason Warner, technology lifer and CEO of Poolside AI, makes a compelling—and contrarian— case against the current AI zeitgeist. ‘You just have to adapt. You have to start building it.’
When courts assess a board’s oversight, they read the record. For AI, the record is thin, and bias and drift are the two risks it’s least likely to show.
Is your organization designed for it?
The question boards should be asking: How can technology help us make better use of the knowledge we already have?
Just 10 percent of boards currently tie CEO pay to AI outcomes—but nearly a third expect the issue on their agenda soon, as pressure to show AI returns builds.
When it comes to succession planning, a new study by CBM and Farient Advisors finds compensation committees moving deeper into succession planning—but directors say pay should support the process, not become the strategy.
A Corporate Board Member/Farient Advisors report on how compensation committees are moving closer to succession planning—and what boards need to know before pay becomes the emergency lever.
The number two role offers an extraordinary vantage point and genuine preparation for the top job. But the moment the promotion happens, the structure changes, the exposure expands and the decisions carry a different weight.
The biggest opportunity is emerging before the search begins.
The central question is no longer whether your board has the right leader at the top, but whether your board has the lens to know.
BP’s leadership turmoil may look like a hiring problem, but it points to a deeper governance challenge, with research suggesting boards spend enormous effort selecting leaders and far too little helping them succeed.
Shareholder engagement and consultation might be more critical in removing a popular sitting CEO than some corporate directors might want to acknowledge.
Directors and governance experts share five board disciplines that help companies earn and protect stakeholder confidence in a skeptical, hyperconnected world.
The proxy environment is growing more complex and less predictable, making it all the more critical to engage shareholders on a consistent basis by meeting them where they are.
Proactive, consistent outreach helps boards anticipate shareholder concerns, strengthen credibility and deliver effective compensation oversight.
Directors should begin discussing where they stand on this issue and how they might deal with shareholder interactions going forward.
Showing up during times of transition, with empathy and sincerity, will do more for trust than any polished talking points ever could.
Even as boards face rising pressure from anti-DEI activists, directors can safeguard board diversity by shifting from easily attacked written policies to resilient, performance-driven selection practices.
The difference between ‘useless’ and ‘fantastic’ isn’t always performance—sometimes it comes down to chemistry.
With informers and subpoenas, the Trump administration wants to root out preferences of any kind.
In today’s climate of volatility and reinvention, boards that view workforce planning as an HR sidebar are missing a vital lever for value creation.
How boards can understand, oversee and hold management accountable for building and sustaining a resilient corporate culture.
A new workforce study shows today’s workers are feeling the squeeze from flatter management layers, tighter salaries and more.
Thanks to lawyers financed by hedge funds, even losing cases are now worth billions.
As the SEC opens a path for trading blockchain tokens tied to company stock in the U.S., it’s a good time to dig into the implications for your organization.
When courts assess a board’s oversight, they read the record. For AI, the record is thin, and bias and drift are the two risks it’s least likely to show.
Heightened oversight tests whether a company can give a consistent account of its decisions across the boardroom, public disclosures, global operations and political cycles.
Corporate board members might want to consider the following to offset some of the risks associated with shareholder lawsuits that seek to hold directors personally liable for losses.
Given the restrictive governance structure SpaceX is pursuing, boards might consider asking some of the following questions at their next meeting.
Heightened oversight tests whether a company can give a consistent account of its decisions across the boardroom, public disclosures, global operations and political cycles.
Given the restrictive governance structure SpaceX is pursuing, boards might consider asking some of the following questions at their next meeting.
Shareholder activism is on the rise and could accelerate under the Trump administration, which will bring new focus to the role of proxy advisory firms.
Elon Musk’s recent bid for the Tesla board to invest in his new AI startup leads to questions about where boards should draw the line.
A letter the shareholders sent to the board suggests several factors that might have influenced these directors to step down.
The possibility of a CEO using or abusing illegal substances or prescription drugs presents several questions for the boardroom.
Board members face greater demands, scrutiny and accountability than ever. Their compensation should reflect the realities of the modern boardroom.
As more companies consider reorganizing their boards to better compete in an extremely unpredictable marketplace, it’s important for board members to proactively take stock of their expertise.
New appointments highlight a strong preference for seasoned leaders with global and cross-sector expertise—prompting fresh questions about board succession and generational balance.
New to board service? These recommendations can help put you on the right foot in your first role—and serve as a guide for improvement.
From intensifying shareholder expectations to ever-evolving technology and pricing strategies, directors share insights on navigating the cross-currents facing today’s boards.
From sports achievement and political stardom to stellar service in corporate boardrooms, J.C. Watts shares the elements of an approach that has made him America’s top value-creating director. ‘If there’s no integrity, strategy doesn’t matter.’
