Creating a winning board: Successful and unsuccessful directorial approaches to competing and winning

Abstract

Purpose

To share the key findings of continuing research programs into successful and unsuccessful approaches to managing change, business development, competing and winning.

Design/methodology/approach

The underpinning research compares approaches adopted with outcomes achieved to identify critical success factors for key corporate activities such as winning business, building relationships, managing change and creating and exploiting know‐how.

Findings

The directors and boards of successful and unsuccessful companies behave in very different ways. Corporate performance depends primarily upon what boards actually do and how their members behave. Winning boards are distinguished by the attitudes and conduct of their members and the approaches they adopt. Corporate governance arrangements are often a symptom and consequence rather than a cause of board effectiveness.

Practical implications

The focus, priorities and preoccupations of many directors and boards need to change if they are to add more value to creating the future.

Originality/value

Provides an overview of the main differences between the behaviors of directors and boards of successful and unsuccessful companies.

Citation

Coulson‐Thomas, C. (2005), "Creating a winning board: Successful and unsuccessful directorial approaches to competing and winning", Strategic Direction, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/02580540510584085