News And Insights

Henri Eliot: Harvard Business Review on avoiding groupthink in the boardroom By Henri Eliot 9:25 AM Friday Oct 28, 2016 Group decision-making should ensure groups aggregate the information their members actually have. Photo / 123RF Boards may make better decisions if directors have some understanding of the psychology of decision-making. In an article in Harvard Business Review, […]

Mike Bennetts has been a CEO for 15 years. He’s been a director of private companies for 20 years and public companies for over 10. Mike has seen governance from both management and board perspectives. Henri Eliot asks him about corporate governance for the next generation of directors. Henri Eliot: How effective governance has helped Z or […]

Henri Eliot: Is big data a governance issue? By Henri Eliot 12:38 PM Monday Sep 26, 2016 Research has found productivity and operating profit benefits from investing in big data. Photo / Getty Images Management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company published research in April 2016 that found that most businesses in its survey made significant investments […]

How to assess your strategy in the boardroom. Strategic planning is intended to accomplish three important tasks: to clarify the outcomes that an organisation wishes to achieve; to select the broad strategies that will enable the organisation to achieve those outcomes; to identify ways to measure progress Looking at the often packed board agendas, there are […]

Henri Eliot: Life lessons from a Wall Street legend By Henri Eliot 9:00 AM Tuesday Aug 9, 2016 Here are some of the life lessons Byron Wien has learned in his first 80 years. Photo / Blackstone At 83 years-old Byron Wien, American investor and vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners, a subsidiary of The Blackstone […]

Should you look overseas for your next board member? New Zealand is too small a market for many of our companies. If our ambition is to be globally competitive, therefore should we also be striving for greater international diversity on our boards? It could be argued that an overseas based director in a target market […]

Henri Eliot: Appointing the CEO is the board’s most critical task By Henri Eliot 9:00 AM Monday Jul 11, 2016 There are some powerful arguments for companies to excel in succession planning. Photo / iStock I recently attended an annual governance conference at Stanford University, Directors College, where we heard from a number of well-known speakers […]

Organisation Dynamics: the role of human resources in our boardrooms How to prepare your board for a new era of high HR turnover. Boards need to know that their organisation is best prepared for higher staff turnover coupled with the opportunities and risks that technology places on displacing more jobs. A recent McKinsey article written […]

Henri Eliot: Should your next board member be a geek? By Henri Eliot 12:00 PM Tuesday Jun 7, 2016 Photo / iStock Current research is challenging the view that boards should resist recruiting too many technology specialists, and reinforcing how unprepared some boards are for the challenges of digital disruption. A study of more than 1,000 […]

“Risk management” is often synonymous with “risk prevention.” Lower risk often means lower returns for those invested in the share market or managing a start up. Today’s risk managers often see their role as helping the company identify and clarify their risk appetite then communicate it across the oraganisation to guide decision making. What role […]