Resource Library Insights

The most critical choice the board makes is selecting the CEO. All boards have strategies that the current management team has developed. A different standpoint on strategy, in turn, may require a different kind of leader. 

We recommend boards and directors ask these questions to help understand their role in process oversight, emergency planning, transition dynamics, and more.

Recognizing both the shrinking of leaders’ tenures and the shifting skill sets needed for future success, many boards are now making succession planning a continual process.

Boards are now broadening their oversight to capitalize on the criticality of more diverse, equitable and inclusive organizations—and strong organizational culture.

The Great Resignation has put retention on the agenda of many boards. Rather than simply reacting — prioritizing pay raises or special packages to stay competitive  — directors can engage management toward a proactive approach.

As Committees set compensation amounts and structure, five key questions can inform their decisions.

By minimizing discretion, directors give consistent direction to management. They avoid what might be perceived as forgiving poor results and forestall potential criticism from proxy advisory firms. 

The turbulent events of 2020 have heightened many American corporations’ sense of political and social responsibility. With the pandemic exacerbating income inequality and climate change still a long-term threat, investors and critics are calling on companies to care for all stakeholders, not just investors. Many boards are attending to their long-standing interests in environmental, social and governance issues more than ever before.

Since the Business Roundtable’s 2019 call for greater attention to all stakeholders, corporate boards have been elevating environmental, social, and governance issues in their discussions.

Given growing stakeholder focus on Human Capital Management (HCM), we sought to understand how companies would approach the HCM disclosure within proxy statements this year. Our study of a sample of proxies filed in December 2020 and January 2021 offers an early proxy season preview of HCM disclosure practices.