Keep shareholders happy and manage for the long term.
Earning a board seat is a rite of passage. But directors must juggle
many responsibilities, from steering company strategy, managing risk,
and appointing leaders to setting the right incentives, meeting
shareholder expectations, and dealing with activist investors. How do
you balance it all?
If you read nothing else on boards, read these 10 articles by experts in
the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard
Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help
you set your board up for success.
This book will inspire you to:
- Ensure you have directors who can meet company goals
- Establish a robust succession-planning process
- Encourage the risk-taking that will generate breakthrough innovation
- Prioritize the health of the enterprise without neglecting
shareholders
- Provide the critical support a new CEO needs to succeed
- Ignite nonprofit board members by engaging them in work that matters
- Take on the world's toughest economic, social, and environmental
problems
This collection of articles includes "What Makes Great Boards Great," by
Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld; "Building Better Boards," by David A. Nadler; "The
Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership," by Joseph L. Bower and Lynn
S. Paine; "The New Work of the Nonprofit Board," by Barbara E. Taylor,
Richard P. Chait, and Thomas P. Holland; "Dysfunction in the Boardroom,"
by Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell; "The Board's New Innovation
Imperative," by Linda A. Hill and George Davis; "Managing Risks: A New
Framework," by Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes; "Ending the CEO
Succession Crisis," by Ram Charan; "Comp Targets That Work," by
Radhakrishnan Gopalan, John Horn, and Todd Milbourn; and "Sustainability
in the Boardroom," by Lynn S. Paine.
HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of
books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the
inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth
and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads
series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to
know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing
yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of
articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic.
Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of
an ever‐changing business environment.