-
Content Type:
Director Q and A
31 Jan 2013
The chair acts as an important link between the board and the CEO/company. The role of the chair is not defined in the Corporations Act 2001. Thus many functions of the chair are customary rather than formalised by law. This Q&A outlines the role and responsibilities of the chairman both inside ...
-
Content Type:
Director Q and A
31 Jan 2013
The board has the responsibility of assessing the performance of the CEO and has a vested interest in ensuring the CEO is effective. This Q&A explains the process of how to conduct an appraisal, how often they should be carried out and other considerations to take into account to ensure a good r...
-
Content Type:
Director Q and A
31 Jan 2013
A productive and harmonious relationship between the board and management is critical for good governance and organisational effectiveness but can be difficult to achieve in reality. The board and management are trying to achieve the same vision and objectives so a partnership based on trust and res...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Aug 2010
John O’Neill tells
Tony Featherstone
why he is once again putting everything on the line for the Australian Rugby Union.
Back in the scrum
After 13 years as a top sports administrator, John O’Neill FAICD is as hard as a rugby scrum. The fo...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Aug 2009
Letters to the editor
I read Tony Featherstone’s article on ‘Unseating the founder’ (Company Director, June 2009) with great interest. As with any good article, the title was provocative and the content worthy of reflection. Here are a couple of probing questions that add to those raised in the art...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2009
Tony Featherstone
investigates why the founders of some family owned companies resist forming a board, and the benefits they may be missing out on.
Opening the family board to NEDs
Key points
A family company board poses unique challenges
Founders struggle w...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2009
Tony Featherstone
argues that entrepreneurs need to be taught to think about boards much earlier in their venture’s development.
Encouraging start-up governance
I recently asked a group of entrepreneurship students about their views on boards. The response: complete silence. To be fair, ...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2009
Zilla Efrat
provides some tips on how to better plan the board’s annual calendar.
Designing the annual calendar
Designing the annual board calendar isn’t rocket science. But by doing a bit more than just replicating last year’s calendar, you can ensure that your board has more mea...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Aug 2008
Ken Moss
discussed the role that power and authority play in a board’s relationship with its CEO at a recent AICD lunch in Perth. Here’s an excerpt of what he had to say.
Power and authority in the boardroomMany political figures have hung onto power for perhaps too long, including the li...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2008
A seemingly insatiable hunger for corporate information may be encouraging a tendency towards short-termism. Janine Mace examines whether Australian companies are dishing up too much data to investors on their outlook.
Don’t super size me
The current reporting season has opened on a subdued no...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2008
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Domini Stuart examines the differences between sitting on private and public sector boards.
A peek at the other side
Until directors are replaced by robots, no two boards can possibly operate in exactly the same way. Nevertheless, there are...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2008
Richard Hewson
explains how the subtleties of human comfort zones can upset the relationship between CEOs and boards.
Discomfort zone
Is the relationshipbetween your board and your CEO as effective as you would want? When the board and the executives of an organisation are not...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Nov 2006
John Massey is as comfortable in the nursery caring for newborn babies as he is in the boardroom building multimillion dollar enterprises – but are these worlds as different as they seem? Nichola Clark reports.
The nurture of business
John Massey likes to describe himself as ‘a formalised e...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2006
Robert Elstone, Elizabeth Johnstone and Charles Macek argue that directors need to be courageous in encouraging management to adopt a long term strategic focus – and not focus entirely on short-term financial performance.
Some challenges for directors in short termism
In previous articles we c...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Aug 2006
Boards share equal and collective responsibility
Jeff Lucy, the chairman of ASIC, is someone who commands a good deal of respect at AICD. However, we disagree profoundly with him with regard to his views on the Greaves case, expressed in a letter to the Australian Financial Review on 30 May. (A ful...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2006
Directors cannot afford to be ignorant of development in IT – but they should concentrate on the business case for implementing new technology and not be overwhelmed by confusing jargon. Domini Stuart reports.
Coming to grips with IT
As recently as the seventies, IT was nothing more than an ex...
-
Content Type:
Position Paper
23 Feb 2006
This position paper sets out what the AICD believes to represent the expectations of the corporate community in Australia as to the responsibilities and liabilities of a company chairman. It places the Greaves case in context, outlines the role of the chairman, comments on the question of liability ...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2005
The first and often only reaction from governments to abhorrent corporate behaviour - however isolated the incident - is to enact new legislation and give the regulators more power. But has this rush to legislative judgment gone too far and become a threat to the economy and an unforeseen cost burde...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2005
The chief executive "drives the bus" and the chairman "collects the fares". This the shorthand description Malcolm Irving, chairman of e-payments company Keycorp, ascribes to the crucial relationship between chairman and CEO at a Directors Briefing in Sydney in April. The crucial CEO/chair dynamic
...
-
Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2005
We have said earlier that the duties of directors are well defined in the law and don’t need change. Let’s consider some consequences of the duties.
Directors have a collective responsibility for the company as a whole. Shareholders put the fate of their company in directors’ hands. Through the CEO ...