Professional directors… their time has come
Two great posts were written yesterday and today by management guru Jim Stroup.
Yesterday, Jim wrote about the conflicts inherent with having a board comprised mostly of CEOs, and why a much better system would evolve out of developing “professional directors”. This new breed of directors would not be trained to be CEOs, but rather trained to be directors. Much like you can major in law or medicine, you ought to be able to major in directorship.
What to do with all the CEOs who will lose their board positions? In today’s post, Jim advances the idea of a separate board entity, akin to an advisory board. He writes:
Everything from acting as a sounding board, recommending new ventures, extending the CEO’s reach out into the broader business and governmental contacts of the boards’ members’ networks – even to providing advice regarding interacting with the professional board of directors would be excellent duties for such a board. It would also provide an important outlet for the otherwise underemployed experience and judgment of CEOs. Moreover, the relaxed environment possible from the less onerous liability involved would likely generate positive, robust, and immensely helpful debate.
Having two separate boards… one serving the needs of shareholders, one serving the needs of management… sounds like that would be very effective. My guess is that most board members enjoy the latter, but not the former. Removing them from that role would serve all parties well.
