Publications

16 Mar 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Higher-Ambition CEOs Need Higher-Ambition Boards

Keywords: by Edward J. Ludwig, Anna Elise Walton & Michael Beer

June 2025
Article

What Board-level Control Mechanisms Changed in Banks Following the 2008 Financial Crisis? A Descriptive Study

By: Shelly Li, Shivram Rajgopal, Suraj Srinivasan and Yu Ting Forester Wong

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) identified major shortcomings in bank board governance, contributing to systemic risk management failures. This study adapts a management control framework and empirically examines... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Management Control; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Change Management; Banks and Banking; Financial Crisis

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March 1991 (Revised October 2022)
Background Note

Beyond the Myth of the Perfect Mentor: Take Charge and Build Your Personal Board of Directors

By: Linda A. Hill, Nancy A Kamprath and Leticia Garcia

Instead of embarking on an odyssey for the perfect mentor, individuals should pursue a strategy of building a network of developmental relationships. In this note, we explore the process by which such a network can be established and cultivated: 1) What functions can... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Networks

03 Sep 2015
News

Why Boards Must Look Beyond Shareholders

01 Jun 2010
News

M.I.A. Boards

September 2008, just one of its ten non-executive directors had any recent banking experience. He had joined the board five months before Lehman went bust. The backgrounds of Lehman’s independent View Details

Keywords: John Gillespie;David Zweig; Finance

December 2010
Article

The Case for Professional Boards

By: Robert C. Pozen

When the world's largest financial institutions had to be rescued from insolvency in 2008, many experts laid the blame at the feet of corporate boards. But insufficient board oversight is a problem that had supposedly been solved in 2002. As the United States... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Failure; Accounting Audits; Quality; Behavior; Legal Liability; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; United States

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August 2003
Case

SEC Proposal for Nomination of Directors by Shareholders

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley Robertson

Describes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 2003 proposal to allow shareholders to nominate a "short slate" of directors for the board of listed companies. Includes comment letters for and against the proposal. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

24 May 2018
Blog Post

Win/Win Board Assignments: Expert Advice from Board Recruiter Julie Norris

integrity, regulatory compliance, determining compensation. But to these, Norris adds two more recent concerns that have become more important to corporate boards. The first of these is change itself. "Many boards look for View Details

September 2013
Case

United Rentals (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Kathleen Durante and Emily McTague

In December 1997 United Rentals (URI) went public on the NYSE. Ten years later, during the peak of the economic meltdown, the company's performance was in decline. United Rentals had experienced its share of problems in the prior years and was still struggling to... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Board Dynamics; Accounting Fraud; Governance; Board Committees; Merger; Corporate Governance; Construction Industry; United States

02 Sep 2010
What Do You Think?

How Transparent Should Boards Be?

Gogula put it, "While protecting the short term interests of shareholders and avoiding a depression of stock prices may be a tempting recourse for a Board member to take, long-term shareholder interest is what the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Third Quarter 2015
Article

Should Boards Mentor Their CEOs?: It Is a Complex Question. Here Are the Significant Considerations.

By: Jay W. Lorsch

It's a complex question with significant considerations, including how open the CEO is likely to be to such advice, the company's situation, and the characteristics of the board. View Details

Keywords: Directors; CEO Mentoring; Governing and Advisory Boards; Rank and Position; Management Teams

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September 21, 2018
Article

Innovation Should Be a Top Priority for Boards. So Why Isn't It?

By: J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Boris Groysberg

Corporate directors and executives alike recognize that today’s pace of change continues to accelerate and that firms need to innovate to stay ahead. But are boards doing enough to support innovation, as they should? We conducted a survey of over 5,000 board members... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Innovation; Technology; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Strategy

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11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Future of Boards

director to serve as a liaison between the other board members and the CEO. As clear-cut as these subjects may seem, the underlying question, as Lorsch sees it, is far more complex: What is the broader... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

January 2013 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Beth Stewart: Navigating the Boardroom

By: Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell

After rising through the ranks of Corporate America, Beth Stewart has become a corporate director on the board of General Growth Properties. Stewart is struggling with how to address her mounting concerns over the financial health of the growing large publically traded... View Details

Keywords: Career Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Boards Of Directors; Board Dynamics; Career Planning; Independent Directors; Leadership; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership Style; Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Real Estate Industry; United States

22 Feb 2017
News

Why Boards Aren’t Dealing with Cyberthreats

Program

Preparing to Be a Corporate Director

opportunities in corporate board service. You will gain a greater understanding of the role and responsibilities of corporate directors and the challenges you can expect to face in that role. By completing... View Details

March 1991 (Revised January 1996)
Case

The General Mills Board and Strategic Planning

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Examines the General Mills Board of Directors' role in the General Mills joint venture with Nestle S.A. to sell cereals outside of North America. It raises the more general question of the appropriate role for the board of directors in strategy formulation. View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Trade; Corporate Governance; Managerial Roles; Expansion; Food and Beverage Industry; North America