Board evaluations – rarely conducted in the past – are gaining recognition as a key success factor, notes
Mark Hoenig, a consultant at Egon Zehnder International, Zurich, in the Swiss business publication
Scorecard. Hoenig identifies 4 core competences required by board members: strategy-orientation, independence, results-orientation and strong team-work skills. Companies need to recruit directors with a mix of these skills to create a board that is diverse, multi-faceted and successful, he writes. To ensure more effective performance, boards are increasingly being reviewed on a routine basis, especially in Anglo-Saxon cultures. In some countries board assessments are now compulsory by law, while in others they are just beginning to gain momentum. A growing number of companies are seeking support from external parties, who often act as sounding boards, enabling firms to benchmark themselves. Continual evaluation, aimed at improving the competences of individual directors and their collective performance, is the best to way to achieve a professional and dynamic board, Hoenig concludes.
