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The original purpose of a board of directors was to manage the company at a strategic level. To do the job properly takes time and effort. Unfortunately, there
by vannevar 14y ago
The original purpose of a board of directors was to manage the company at a strategic level. To do the job properly takes time and effort. Unfortunately, there is no limit to how many boards on which one can sit, and the quality of corporate governance at the board level has degraded accordingly. Allowing people to sit on multiple boards also breeds group think, conflicts of interest and back-channels for insider information. Interlocking boards are another way our economic system is gamed to favor the wealthy. We should restrict membership to a single board, leading to a greater diversity of qualified people in the boardroom.
- wtvanhest 14y agoI don't disagree with your assertion, but how do you deal with the fact that there is a finite number of qualified people who can sit on boards? Its not like there are 10,000 past CEOs willing to sit on the boards of these companies. I think it is a really tough challenge, and one that is not easily solved.
- vannevar 14y agoI believe there are many more people with sufficient qualifications than there are board seats for them to sit on. They don't all need to be past CEOs, just ethical people with business experience and good sense. And frankly, it wouldn't hurt to trim the size of the average board, if it really becomes a problem.
- ECMathews 14y agoDefinitely agree with this. One of the key innovations to free up more capital in the fly over cities has been de-coupling the board membership from the capital at the Angel or Seed level. We found that early stage investors would put up the money but didn't have the time.