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Board effectiveness

How can boards work better and improve their effectiveness?

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Articles & features

How to reap the benefits of a shadow board
  • May 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
A turbulent business environment is galvanising support for the concept of the shadow board. A new ICAEW guide explains how they work, how your organisation might benefit and the main considerations for setting one up.
Start with 'Why': Top Tips for Effective Board Reports
  • Apr 2024
  • Kristina Kopic
Effective board reports enable informed decision-making and strategic alignment. However, crafting a board report that supports your board’s decision-making requires more than just compiling data and financial results. It demands communicating the report’s purpose clearly, understanding the requirements of the trustees, and anchoring the reports in the charity’s strategic priorities.
CFO most diverse C-suite role amid patchy progress
  • Mar 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
White men still hold three-quarters of chair, CEO or CFO roles across FTSE 350 and more than half of board and executive committee positions, study finds.
Horizon: lessons for software procurement
  • Feb 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
As the issues with the Post Office’s Horizon software make headlines, we look at how buyers must work with vendors during the software procurement process.
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CPD Training courses

Stay on top of the rapidly evolving corporate governance landscape and discover how to be a high-performing board director.
Corporate governance courses
Octopus

Guidance

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE How boards of accounting and finance firms can benefit from shadow boards
  • Helpsheets and support
  • May 2024
Shadow boards can be considered as a tool for navigating a turbulent and ever-changing business landscape. Find out how accountancy businesses can see the same benefits from setting up a shadow board that other sectors are already experiencing.
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
  • Report
  • Nov 2021
  • PDF (246kb)
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
Exclusive BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT FACULTY SR72 The aspiring CFO
  • Report
  • Nov 2021
  • PDF (1,950kb)
A practical, realistic, hands-on and immense learning opportunity of all you need to know to become the CFO
Avoiding information overload insurance
  • Helpsheets and support
  • Jan 2020
  • PDF (287kb)
This guide offers practical examples and checklists for those working in or with the insurance industry to avoid information overload.
SUSTAINABILITY Is Climate Change a Board issue?
  • Report
  • Nov 2019
Given the far-reaching impact and implications, of climate change there is a need for boards to better understand how it is likely to affect their organisations and sectors so they can make better informed and more strategic decisions. However in a recent survey of ICAEW’s UK business members (Jun/July 2019), only 37% were aware of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Principles and only 15% were aware of the FSB’s Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures.
Exclusive BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT FACULTY Special Report 65 - Smart Reporting
  • Report
  • Sep 2019
  • PDF (1,597kb)
This special report will be a handy go-to guide – we take you through the latest techniques and thinking behind the new smart world with which CFOs, and aspiring CFOs, must contend.
FINANCIAL SERVICES FACULTY Information overload: effective boards and committees in financial services
  • Thought leadership report
  • Feb 2019
  • PDF (2,007kb)
This report provides practical recommendations to improve the provision of information in board packs within financial services.
FINANCIAL SERVICES FACULTY Information overload: effective boards and committees in financial services
  • Thought leadership report
  • Feb 2019
ICAEW provides practical recommendations to reduce the size of board packs and make them more effective for boards. Our proposals will enable board chairs, management, executives and non-executives to improve their own papers, ensure that responsibilities are clearly defined and make sure that non-executives do not have to deal with information overload. The proposals we provide work in the context of three overarching principles.

The new boardroom agenda

The key to success in any organisation is long term, sustainable growth but managing that is harder than ever. Faster moving, more complex risks – and opportunities – require more assiduous monitoring, more informed decision-making, and much greater coordination among all employees to ensure corporate success.

Our new content series explores the central role board members play in this endeavour and how crucial they are to any organisation’s long term health.

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Karen Hester with a wall of kegs behind her

Webinars and other recordings

Exclusive Supporting the board: Shadow boards and advisory committees
  • Webinar
  • 27 Nov 2024
Explore how shadow boards or advisory committees can keep your business at the forefront of progress.
Groupthink: the boardroom’s most pervasive problem?
  • Podcast
  • 28 Jun 2024
In this episode of Behind the Numbers, we discuss strategies to prevent and tackle groupthink at board level.
Exclusive Crisis prevention: the role of directors and the board
  • Webinar
  • 13 Mar 2024
Hear from our expert panel to help you prepare your organisation and board for preventing a crisis.
Exclusive Ten steps to become a high performing board
  • Webinar
  • 27 Jun 2023
Join us to look at this framework for good governance and how to apply the Ten Steps principles to all governance work. We will set out to discover what makes the difference between good and great in the boardroom.
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Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service

Eligible firms have free access to Bloomsbury Professional's comprehensive online library, comprising around 80 titles from some of the country's leading tax and accounting subject matter experts. Find out who is eligible and how you can access the Accounting and Tax Service.
Exclusive Directors, the Board and the company secretary
  • eBook chapter
  • 2023
  • Mark Cardale
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Rights and Duties of Directors
A chapter discussing the role of the board, board sub-committees, board effectiveness and decision making, board evaluation, board meetings and the board and the company secretary.
Exclusive The effective board
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
A chapter analysing what makes boards effective, including achieving boardroom diversity and the role of board reviews.
Exclusive Leadership
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
A chapter focusing on effective leadership by the board and its members.
Exclusive Effective boards and directors
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
Practical guidance on the effectiveness of boards and directors, covering a wide variety of corporate governance issues.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the Acceptable usage terms.

eBooks

The Library & Information Service provides a collection of eBooks as a benefit of membership. Please note that ICSA publications are only available to ICAEW members and ACA students.  Please log in to access these titles. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support or contact library@icaew.com
Exclusive Evaluations that enhance board effectiveness
  • eBook chapter
  • 2024
  • Richard Fields
  • Wiley
  • Handbook of Board Governance
Explores the practical realities of corporate governance in public, private, and not-for-profit environments. Chapter 76 looks at board evaluation with reference to the legal and regulatory landscape in several countries, demands from shareholders and proxy advisers, board members an executive leaders, and practical suggestions for designing effective evaluations.
Exclusive Board structure, composition and effectiveness
  • eBook chapter
  • 2024
  • Richard Leblanc (editor)
  • Wiley
  • Handbook of Board Governance
Explores the practical realities of corporate governance in public, private, and not-for-profit environments. Part 11 looks at the control function of boards, administering a director competency and attribute matrix, model director orientation and education policies, managing teamwork on boards and director effectiveness in general.
Exclusive Corporate governance handbook
  • eBook
  • 2017
  • Bernadette Barber | Barbara Allen
  • ICSA Publishing
The ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook provides full explanations of the statutory and regulatory regime applicable to listed companies but also,addresses how governance best practice might be applied by private companies, including subsidiaries.
Exclusive Maintaining an effective board
  • eBook chapter
  • 2017
  • ICSA Publishing
  • ICSA Publishing
  • The ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook
Chapter 9 looks at the board and good governance, which includes the work of the nomination committee. Board diversity, corporate culture, succession planning and recruitment to the board, director induction and development and board evaluation are all covered.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Industry press

The Library & Information Service provides a collection of articles as a benefit of membership. Please log in to view these articles. If you are unable to access the articles, please see our Help and support page or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive Executives rate boards on effectiveness, composition and prioritization
  • Dec 2024
  • MLR Holdings
Brief review of the findings of a PwC /The Conference board survey of 600 top executives on topics such as board composition, board roles and responsibilities, and board expertise, as well as technology and talent.
Exclusive Elevating board effectiveness: how to improve purpose, strategy and board priorities.
  • Oct 2024
  • Nicholas Barnett
  • Copyright Agency Limited
This article discusses the importance of improving board effectiveness in order to enhance the performance of organisations. It emphasises the need for boards to focus on purpose, strategy, and values, as well as the growing compliance burden they face and incudes a brief checklist for boards.
Exclusive AI at the crossroads: Revamping board structures for effective governance.
  • Apr 2024
  • Tom Petro
  • National Association of Corporate Directors
The article focuses on the dilemma faced by corporate boards regarding the oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, questioning which committee is best suited for governing AI's multifaceted risks. The author explores potential contenders for this role, including the risk management committee, a dedicated AI governance committee, and the technology committee, each offering unique expertise and perspectives tailored to the challenges posed by AI governance.
Exclusive Seven mantras for board chair effectiveness
  • Feb 2024
  • Rita Goyal, Nada Kakabadse, Andrea Kakabadse, Danielle Talbot
  • Sage Publications
This article provides insights into the best practices of Chairs of the largest listed companies in the UK. The findings of the study indicate that effective leadership of boards requires an enlightened approach, with seven Mantras of effective board leading being commonly employed: support for the CEO; lead with values; exercise influence (not power); compose diverse boards; communicate inclusively; resolve conflicts intuitively: and reflect and course correct.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access articles subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Useful links

Board diversity and efffectiveness in FT350 companies
  • Website
  • July 2021
  • Financial Reporting Council
Research by The FRC and the London Business School designed to both understand the implications of changes in board diversity in response to the Davies Review, Hampton-Alexander review and the Parker Review and to look forward, to suggest how they can be accelerated. The report was launched with the press release Diverse boards lead to better corporate culture and performance
Audit Committee effectiveness 2020 Framework
  • Website
  • January 2021
  • Deloitte
This practical self assessment guide and checklist covers all aspects of the audit committee’s remit for companies outside the financial sector.
Guidance on board effectiveness
  • Website
  • July 2018
  • Financial Reporting Council
The FRC published revised guidance on board effectiveness in July 2018
Guidance on board effectiveness
  • Website
  • July 2018
  • Financial Reporting Council
Guidance published by the FRC in July 2018 'to stimulate boards thinking on how they can carry out their role and encourage them to focus on continually improving their effectiveness.' The role of the chairman is one of the issues covered in Section 2.
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