What’s the board’s role in strategy development?: Why you need to redesign your board of directors – an interview with Jay Lorsch

This noted authority on board practices believes that the root cause of board oversight failure lies in the inadequate attention given to the way each board is designed to handle its responsibilities. He outlines a reform agenda. A more active role means that directors will be challenged to understand increasingly complex business operations and finances. The first action needed is to get management and the board mutually to agree on what the financial and competitive goals of the company are. Second, the board needs to be clear on its role. Even though the spectrum of diligent oversight ranges from active participant to passive observer, the board needs to ask answer key questions: What decisions are the board going to make? What decisions need to be left to management? How much oversight is necessary or appropriate? What activities or programs is the board going to monitor?