Boards at Work: How Corporate Boards Create Competitive Advantage

Behind closed doors, in corporate boardrooms across America, a quiet revolution is taking place. Boards of directors - long an unrealized source of competitive advantage - are transcending their traditional roles to proactively influence the future direction of their companies. And in this new work, consultant Ram Charan shares an intriguing, first-hand account of how a small but growing number of exceptional boards are changing the face of corporate governance. He also shows how CEOs can tap the vast reserve of experience and wisdom a board's membership represents. With an insider's perspective, Charan relates the activities undertaken by the boards of Citicorp, GE, Warner-Lambert, TRW, KeraVision, the Royal Bank of Canada, and other major corporations. His observations are further informed by the twenty-five years of behind-the-scenes research he has conducted as a consultant to some of the nation's top organizations and business leaders. What he offers is new insight into the importance of board dynamics and specific, unprecedented guidance companies can use to develop their own boards as invaluable competitive assets.