Recent corporate scandals have brought to light a range of misconceptions about what a board is and is not supposed to be. The corporate excess and board-sanctioned creative accounting procedures exposed at Enron, WorldCom, and other major U.S. corporations dominated headlines and resulted in new regulations of public corporations.
Although the vast majority of firms in the A/E industry are privately held and not subject to the stricter regulations that resulted from the scandals, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, most of these firms have boards of directors and can benefit from the new debate as to what makes a strong board. Even the smallest of design and environmental firms can derive a benefit from the right board of directors; A/E Board of Directors Cookbook will give firm leaders, board members, potential outside board advisors, and executive management in A/E firms practical information about what their boards should be doing and how to create more effective, responsive, and efficient boards.
Summary of What's Inside:
Learn about the board's role and what duties it performs
Learn how to align your board with the strategic goals of your A/E firm
Investigate the critical aspects of creating a successful board
Learn how to appropriately compensate board members at your A/E firm
Hear about common challenges boards face in the A/E industry
Explore the criterion for choosing the right board members
Learn about the board’s role and what duties it performs
Learn how to align your board with the strategic goals of your firm
Investigate the critical aspects of creating a successful board
Learn how to compensate board members
Hear about common challenges boards face in the A/E industry
Explore criterion for choosing the right board members
More!
Who are those people and what do they do, anyway?
Recent corporate scandals have brought to light a range of misconceptions about what a board is and is not supposed to be. The corporate excess and board-sanctioned creative accounting procedures exposed at Enron, WorldCom and other major U.S. corporations dominated headlines and resulted in new regulations of public corporations. Similarly, more recent distrustful boardroom dealings at HP have raised questions about how a board should conduct itself. What’s appropriate? What’s legal? What’s best for the company and its shareholders? And these scandals have impacts that reach beyond the publicly traded company sphere.
Although the vast majority of firms in the A/E industry are privately held and not subject to the stricter regulations that resulted from the scandals, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, most of these firms have boards of directors and can benefit from the new debate as to what makes a strong board. Even the smallest of design and environmental firms can derive a benefit from the right board of directors; A/E Board of Directors Cookbook will give firm leaders, board members, potential outside board advisors, and executive management in A/E firms practical information about what their boards should be doing and how to create more effective, responsive, and efficient boards.
In addition, A/E Board of Directors Cookbook offers best practices advice on structuring the board, getting the board to concentrate on the right tasks, and compensating them fairly. With ZweigWhite’s A/E Board of Directors Cookbook, you will learn how a board of directors can benefit a firm, how to find the right talent to staff the board, and what other firms have found works when putting together a board of directors.
A/E Board of Directors Cookbook is also filled with real-life case studies and descriptions of real boards of directors in the industry today. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how other A/E firms are structuring their boards, who’s involved, and what their biggest challenges are. The case studies profile firms of all types and sizes in the design and environmental industry, so you can see how firms just like yours are using their boards to their advantage.
Don’t just lead… lead effectively. A/E Board of Directors Cookbook will show you how!
Foreword
Chapter 1: Defining the A/E Board of Directors
What exactly is a board of directors?
Small versus large and public versus private
Do small firms even need a board of directors?
Trend towards more boards across all firms
Chapter 2: Putting the Board Together
Profiling the firm
Writing the board prospectus
Personal qualities in directors
Job descriptions
Recruiting
Voting by the shareholders
Terms of service
Structuring the board
Size matters
Insiders only?
Chapter 3: Duties of the Board
Major areas for board focus
Setting the firm’s mission
Policy setting and strategic planning
Recommend and approve significant transactions
Fiduciary oversight
Committees
Business development
Management oversight
Self-evaluation
Chapter 4: Challenges Facing A/E Boards
Choosing the wrong leaders
Ineffective meetings
An uncomfortable relationship with top management
Setting inappropriate target goals for the business
The too-large board
Disconnect between strategic decisions and their implementation
Too many mixed-up hats
Difficult incorporating outside directors
Not compensating outside directors appropriately
Letting politics and cliques horn in
Chapter 5: Keys to a Successful A/E Board of Directors
Worthwhile meetings
Communication
Trust
Far-sightedness
Clear expectations
Performance evaluations
Diversity
Structure and process
A strong, organized chairperson
Carefully selected directors
Chapter 6: Special Issues
Ethics and conflicts of interest
Legal concerns
Meeting minutes
Mergers and acquisitions
Chapter 7: A/E Industry Case Studies
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