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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jul 2010
Sam Butcher
explains why agreeing on and articulating the behaviours expected of directors can be a powerful tool to enhance board performance.
Using behaviours to drive board performance
High-performing boards proactively manage two critical dimensions of their work: the frameworks ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2010
John M Green
suggests it may not be the proxy advisory firms that are the problem, but some of the institutions that hire them.
Proxy by proxy
During each year’s annual general meeting season, directors come out blasting at corporate governance proxy advisory firms. It’s mostly d...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Apr 2010
Directors social impact
I recently had the pleasure of hosting our NSW Fellows Lunch in Sydney, where we launched important new research throwing light on the enormous contribution the director community makes to Australian society through its involvement in not-for-profit (NFP) organisations, incl...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2010
Zilla Efrat
details some changes that may affect boardroom decisions on leasing.
The shifting leasing landscape
Significant accounting changes are looming that could affect companies that lease anything from offices, warehouses and machinery to motor vehicles, trucks and photocopiers.
...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2010
John Barrington
discusses how a “Breakthrough” board can be developed to create strategic advantage.
The Breakthrough board
Three Ts of the “Breakthrough” board
Tone from the top: The chairman promotes and lives the strategic perspective
Take the time: The board builds the agenda...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Dec 2009
Five directors predict how the role of non-executive directors will change in the next decade.
NEDs of 2020
Catherine Harris AO PSM FAICD
Chairman of Harris Farm Markets. Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australian Japan Foundation, National Gallery of Australia and the Australian S...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Nov 2009
Director turnover is at its lowest in several years.
Tony Featherstone
provides some reasons for this and explains why this situation will soon change.
The low down on director turnover
After such a tumultuous two years, board turnover should be rising sharply. It is not. New dir...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Nov 2009
Domini Stuart
discusses how the board can help a company reshape itself in good or bad times.
Redrawing the lines
In tough times, boards should:
Be proactive
Bring in advisers sooner rather than later
Talk to management regularly
Demand frequent finan...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2009
The science is still in its infancy, but as
Domini Stuart
reports, having high emotional intelligence or EQ could make you a better director.
What’s your EQ?
Key points
Emotional intelligence:
Is still in its infancy as a science
Is about the intelligent use of emotions
Helps di...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2009
John M Green
suggests boards ditch the old short-termist penny-farthing corporate model.
Penny-farthing companies
Just as cyclist Lance Armstrong owes the industrial revolution for the penny-farthing, investors should thank it for the freely registrable limited liability corporation.
Sin...
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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...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jul 2009
Tony Featherstone argues that organisations should not forget values and culture when making tough decisions in a harsh economic environment.
Upholding values and culture
A friend was recently made redundant due to corporate downsizing. By his own admission, he was no star, but hardworking and...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2009
Tony Featherstone
discusses how smaller companies can build up their arsenal, draw up their war plans and harness their troops to take on the downturn.
Plotting your moves
In downturns, smaller companies should:
Review the battle grounds carefully
Update their combat strategies
Anticipa...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2009
Tony Featherstone
ponders what the board should do if the founder is no longer the right person to run a venture in a changing operating environment.
Unseating the founder
Directors of fast-growth small companies face a significant challenge: some must decide whether the entrepren...
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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...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jun 2009
News & Views
The importance of timely disclosure
Timely disclosure of changes to directors’ interests is vital to good corporate governance and helps maintain investor confidence in market integrity, notes Eric Mayne, chief supervision officer of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
“Dire...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2009
There is no escaping the new carbon economy.
Giles Parkinson
provides an update on the climate change homework directors need to do to avoid any surprises.
Gearing up for the carbon economy
There is no doubt that the carbon economy is upon us. Even with the uncertainty surroundin...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2009
Charles Beelaerts
investigates how boards can get the best out of their performance reviews – and whether the financial crisis is affecting how these are done.
Measuring your board’s performance
The need to undertake board reviews is not new. In 2003, the Australian Securities Exchange s...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2009
Terry Peabody
has a long history of building up successful companies. He shared some of his business secrets at a recent AICD
Leaders’ Edge
lunch in Brisbane. Here is an abridged version of what he had to say.
Looking to the long term
With many businesses focused on resizing or sim...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2009
Domini Stuart
gets out into the country, to find that while rural boards may be doing it the hard way, they are also lifting their game.
Toughing it out in the country
The image of rural Australia many urbanites hold is hopelessly out of date.
“Broadly speaking, people ...