Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask

by Ram Charan

YOUR WORLD AS A DIRECTOR HAS SUDDENLY CHANGED. YOU’VE SEEN MEMBERS OF OTHER boards take the heat when their companies imploded. The managements of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Washington Mutual clearly failed, but so did their boards. Now the board of every company beset with problems is coming under scrutiny. The pressure is on. Your board must own up to its accountability for the performance of the corporation. Governance now means leadership. Boards must change their modus operandi to address the new and complex issues that are emerging. These include

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ram Charan is an Indian-American business consultant, speaker, and writer resident in Dallas, Texas.

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really in the target market for this book -- members of corporate boards or those who report to and work with them. However, I am on a local governmental board, and while many of the recommendations were not relevant, there were also many recommendations that could be used in an elected public board. I found the section on recognizing and dealing with board micromanagement to be very pertinent. Also sections on owning strategy and gathering information to provide oversight were useful. I would hope that the author could provide this kind of expertise to government boards in another book -- it would be a great public service. I listened to this on audio, and found the audio to be well done and conducive to understanding the concepts.

[Tommy Kiedis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Harvard Ph.D. with a focus on Boards of directors + decades of experience learning, practicing and teaching others + engaging prose + keen insights and practical tools = Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs To Ask..

Ram Charan wants us to know that board governance means board leadership. Boards bring a vast wealth of insight, wisdom, and business savvy; they must exercise it.

Reading Ram Charan is like having the world-class business adviser and teacher over for a cup of coffee. You get the insights (minus the give-and-take of course) delivered in a clear and practical manner. Charan is not going to go easy. He will tell you: "Boards need to own up to their accountability for the performance of the corporation." (page ix) His hope is "that you and your colleagues will use the content of this book to help your board truly own up to the new role society is demanding of you." (page xi)

My board experience is with churches and an educational organization. Charan's main focus is corporate boards, but so much of what he says has direct application across a variety of board settings. Consequently, he equipped me to do a better job in my current roles, but he also gave me a greater appreciation and readiness to engage as a board member in other settings.

The questions:
1. Is our board composition fright for the challenge?
2. Are we addressing the risks that could send our company over the cliff?
3. Are we prepared to do our job well when a crisis erupts?
4. Are we well prepared to name our next CEO?
5. Does our board really own the company's strategy?
6. How can we get the information we need to govern well?
7. How can our board get CEO compensation right?
8. Why do we need a lead director anyway?
9. Is our governance committee best of breed?
10. How do we get the most value out of our limited time?
11. How can executive sessions help the board own up?
12. How can our board self-evaluation our functioning and our output?
13. How do we stop from micromanaging?
14. How prepared are we to work with activist shareholders and their proxies?

Ram Charan's Owning Up was like every book of his I have read; an educational journey I am glad I undertook. His book provided me with a broader understanding of the nature of boards and how they thrive. He also put some helpful tools (Directors Skills Matrix, 17; Dashboard, 76; Tutorial sessions, 134-5; Board self-evaluation questions, 156-7) in my leadership toolbox.

[Ron Mackey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly targets a for profit board audience. There are nuggets relevant for not for profit, but not enough for me to stick with it.

[Harish B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ram Charan is a master of insights. Absolutely good read especially now since we are witnessing increased focus on corporate governance.

[Serri · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Owning Up" identifies 14 questions every board member should ask/evaluate regularly. The author identified the right questions to ask, but I was disappointed in the quality of content supporting the discussion of each question. I often felt the author was restating the obvious and the supporting examples he provided were too general. For example the author would cite an example stating that a "leading pharmaceutical company" adopted this approach and it worked. My best guess is that he did not have permission to name the company or the specifics of the situation, however, it made it difficult for a reader to transition from best practices that anyone can claim as the right thing to do to factual situations where the approach was a proven idea or process and actually made both the Board of Directors and company better.

However, I do think the book could be valuable for a Board, or management team, to read as a group with the goal of using it as a starting point to discuss how they can best improve their Board. The book is clearly written from a public company's perspective, however, I think there are good discussion starters and take-aways that are applicable to boards of privately-held companies and non-profit organizations.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primary action guide for corporate directors

Corporate directors have their hands full. They must help their companies prosper, keep their shareholders happy, establish sensible CEO performance standards, and evaluate strategy and risk in a volatile business climate. How can board members keep all those balls in the air? These dilemmas have no easy answers, but Ram Charan, best-selling business author and leading expert on corporate governance, provides excellent suggestions for this formidable balancing act. Though his text sometimes digresses – interestingly – from its mission, Charan provides board members with many useful, if not entirely new, insights. If you are a corporate director or even if you sit on a nonprofit’s board, getAbstract believes you can gain a lot from reading this superb, savvy book.

To learn more about this book, check out the following Web page: http://www.getabstract.com/summary/12...

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good perspective of what corporate governance should be considering - things that can make it add value

[Marco Bayeux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book to complement my understanding the ideal profile of Board Members we use to hire for companies in the Brazilian market.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you work with or on boards, this is mandatory reading.

[Alberto Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from Mr. Charan. With his extensive board experience, he created this must-have book for any director seeking the highest in board performance.