What Makes Great Boards Great
by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld
IN THE WAKE OF THE MELTDOWNS of such once great companies as Adelphia, Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, enormous attention has been focused on the companies’ boards. Were the directors asleep at the wheel? In cahoots with corrupt management teams? Simply incompetent? It seems inconceivable that business disasters of such magnitude could happen without gross or even criminal negligence on the part of board members. And yet a close examination of those boards reveals no broad pattern of incompetence or corruption. In fact, the boards followed most of the accepted standards for board operations: Members showed up for meetings; they had lots of personal money invested in the company; audit committees, ...
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