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Good Governance and Its Effect on Value Creation

This last weekend I was blessed to be with some of our nation’s top leaders in governance. NACD TriCities Chapter had a strategic planning retreat with us to discuss several issues around how we could be better as directors as well as help NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) be even more impactful across the U.S. on several fronts. The retreat was facilitated by Alan Smith of Deutser — who was excellent. The discussions had were intense and insightful with all contributing. You could sense that all in the room are passionate about being excellent directors as well as wanting to challenge the status quo to ensure corporations position themselves for better futures.

One key area of discussion was the impact of good governance on creating shareholder value. This was a subject we spent a great deal of time discussing since what good is good governance if it doesn’t produce excellent results, especially along the lines of long-term shareholder value creation. We all know that it has become fashionable to blame failures around value creation on CEOs and companies chasing short-term results and leaving long-term value creation on the shelf. As a long-time management consultant, I definitely have seen my share of that… but it is truly in the minority. Most CEOs understand the importance of great governance and usually surround themselves with outstanding directors and advisors to help make it happen. But the life of any CEO, today, is definitely not easy and whether they are running a public or private for-profit enterprise, today’s economic environment is laced with all types of land mines that have to be seen and worked around.

But one thing is for certain, GOOD GOVERNANCE IS a tremendous corporate differentiator. The article below does a great job of discussing it. Plus, I plan on adding more on this subject in the days to come— in the meantime rest assured NACD is working on it as well. I’ve been with them for over 30 years, and they are the best at what they do.

Check them out: https://www.nacdonline.org/

Enjoy the article.