MASTERCLASS OVERVIEW

Our masterclass on boardroom excellence delivers an intense, four-day program of knowledge that will make all the difference in your boardroom. With interactive discussion, sharing of proven boardroom best practices, “what would you do?” exercises, and immediately usable ideas, you’ll build the strategies and specific actions to shape your board into a powerful, professional fiduciary. No matter the legal structure of your organization, your board members (and supporting staff) will gain from this boardroom intelligence.

The program will also include detailed, step-by-step guidance on the role of boards, local governance issues, structuring effective boards, leadership, the special concerns facing banks, state-owned and family business boards, the board role in setting strategy and social responsibility policy, tools for making “online” governance effecting, and handling “inside the boardroom” conflicts.

Be prepared for active participation, extensive give-and-take discussion, and gaining a thorough knowledge of improved company governance, all in a confidential learning environment.
The boardroom masterclass gets participants involved from the very first moments. Active discussions, “what would you do” case studies and exercises, and sharing of ideas are the rule as we convene a virtual “board of directors” during the seminar.

Your fellow board members, company secretary, and other staff will open up on their own ideas for improving your governance. Presentations give you valuable examples, guides, and information links you’ll put to immediate use back at the company. You’ll gain fresh board and governance ideas you never considered, and also share your own best practices with directors from around the world.

WHY ATTEND?

• With case studies, group discussions, practical handouts and expert tuition, attendees will truly learn how to strengthen
the building blocks of an effective board.
• Learn what an effective director does and understand the board’s role in delivering business benefit.
• Understand various strategies for improving board effectiveness.
• Gain more insights into ethical leadership.
• Learn about Risk culture, Risk universe, Risk tolerance and Risk appetite, Risk management tools, Risk matrix, Risk
register and Risk responses.
• Understanding the reasons for strategic failure.
• Learn directors’ authority and ‘how to stay out of prison’.
• Delegates will return to their workplace with practical and actionable insights which will help their organisation become
more effective, and better performing.
• Learn how to build an effective board of competent directors, directors’ duties and responsibilities.
• Insights on the challenges and opportunities facing directors and boards, and how they should be addressed.
• Understand he distinction between direction and management, and how to create more competent directors and more
effective boards.
• How to develop key result areas for your board and individual directors.
• Identify the relevant legislation of the Companies Act and the applicable guidelines of corporate governance codes of
conduct best practices.
• Understand the correlation between good corporate governance and shareholder value creation & wealth maximization.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Chairman
CEO / COO
Board Of Directors
Head of Compliance
Head of Finance / CFO
Board Secretaries
Executive Secretary
Company Secretary

who-should-attend-corporate-governance-masterclass

Regulators
Co-operate governance professionals
Legal Directors
Head of Governance
Chief Risk Officer
Chief Internal Auditor
Co-operate Affairs

AGENDA – Day 1

 

Session 1:

How corporate boards got this way (and why it matters).

• Called to order – Group introductions
• How the corporate board model took over the world (and why it so often fails).
• The changing mandates and structures of board committees

Case study
Governance changes made new financing possible


Session 2:

The Structure and Workings of the Board

• Why boards are not designed to do the job we demand of them.
• The elements of an effective board and governance structure.
• Your director duties
• Committee structures


Session 3:

What Your Board Doesn’t Know…

• How little boards really know about what can go wrong in the
company.
• Board intelligence gathering tools
• Boards and the corporate whistleblower system.
• What lessons can we learn from corporate scandals?


Session 4:

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) trends and the Board

• The boom in ESG concerns
• How does the board structure itself to work with ESG stake
holders?
• Judging company ESG materiality.

Case Study
Good governance helped a female Egyptian CEO succeed.

AGENDA – Day 2

 

Session 1:

Your Board’s Chief Executive Relationship

• Making board/CEO teamwork effective.
• How does the board “know its role” versus management?
• Setting board/CEO boundaries and expectations.
• Navigating the most common flash points in board / management powers.


Session 2:

Succeeding at CEO Succession and Evaluation

• Defining the board role in leadership.
• Elements of an effective CEO succession plan
• What boards get right (and wrong) in CEO evaluation.
• How can state firms improve CEOs if they don’t actually select them?

Case Study
A founder turns over the reins to a new CEO… but still pulls the strings.


Session 3:

Secrets of Effective Board Leaders

• What marks the truly savvy board chair?
• Why the skills of a good board leader are the opposite of a management leader?
• What challenges face board leaders today?
• Emotional intelligence and the board chair


Session 4:

Making Board Evaluation Work

• The “pre-evaluation” steps that bring success.
• Tools for rating your board.
• What too often goes wrong with evaluation?
• How do you put evaluation results to work?

AGENDA – Day 3

 

Session 1:

Global Best Practice Tools for Better Boards

• Board calendars and agendas that boost workflow.
• What’s missing from your board agenda?
• “Bright ideas” for agendas that deliver better board work in less time.
• How the corporate secretary is crucial for good boards.


Session 2:

Tackling Board Information Flow

• How to halt the board “info flood.”
• Board info pack tips you’ll wonder how you lived without.
• How most board materials guarantee poor oversight.
• Try these tools to improve board presentations.

Case Study
Putting a board portal to work


Session 3:

Online Board Meetings and Governance

• Lessons learned from two years of remote boards.
• Are you violating your board meeting bylaws (without knowing it)?
• How online governance is reinventing board oversight – best practices.
• Chairing virtual board meetings.


Session 4:

Welcome to the Boardroom!

• How a new director should prepare.
• Pre-meeting prep best practices.
• What most directors miss at their first board meeting.
• Finding your boardroom mentor.

AGENDA – Day 4

 

Session 1:

Corporate Controls, Risk, and the Board

• Making financial controls “board friendly.”
• Smart use of digital information “dashboards.”
• The board role in shaping company risk strategy.
• Why boards overestimate outside risks (and underestimate inside ones).
• Structuring your board for smart risk oversight.


Session 2:

Special Organizations with Special Governance Needs.

• Family businesses
• Joint ventures/subsidiary governance.
• Sovereign wealth funds.


Session 3:

State Owned Enterprise (SOE) governance

• Defining the goals of the SOE
• The role of the SOE board versus management.
• How to modify the lessons learned above for state board rules and demands.
• Giving your SOE the tools (charters, structures, evaluation) to do its job.

Case Study
The SOE privatization that wasn’t.


Session 4:

Flashpoints! Boardroom Conflicts.

• How boards are a surprising source of company crises.
• What sparks the most common board battles.
• Conflicts of interest and board investigations.

Case Study
How do we handle our board crisis?

PRESENTER

Name: RALPH WARD

Ralph Ward is an internationally-recognized speaker, writer, and advisor on the role of boards of directors, how “benchmark” boards excel, personal boardroom careers, and the future of governance. He speaks globally on-board topics, and offers Boardroom Masterclass programs.

Ward is publisher of the online newsletter Boardroom INSIDER, the worldwide source for practical, first-hand advice on better boards and directors. He also edits The Corporate Board magazine, the nation’s leading corporate governance journal. He is author of six acclaimed books for today’s corporate boards:

• Board Seeker Guidebook (2018)
• Boardroom Q&A (2011)
• The New Boardroom Leaders (2008)
• Saving the Corporate Board (2003)
• Improving Corporate Boards (2000)
• 21st Century Corporate Board (1997).