Board Review

As the leading executive search and board consulting company in Switzerland, we have helped to professionalize board activities in Switzerland over the past 15 years and have supported numerous searches for members of boards of directors or entire board committees. We were increasingly consulted for the assessment of board committees. As part of this process, we have developed a systematic approach to assess the performance and effectiveness of the work of the Board of Directors and, together with the Board, to develop target-oriented measures to optimise it.

Objective

Our Board Review is a structured, systematic process that offers the Board of Directors concrete starting points for rethinking the structural and procedural status quo. Our approach involves the Chairman of the Board of Directors, each individual member of the Board of Directors and the CEO in an intensive communication process in order to identify areas for action within the framework of an analysis. This builds on the extensive experience of the individual members as executives and board members on this and other boards. The discussion is enriched by the best practices experienced by schillingpartners from the extensive Board Review and Board Appointments experience (see references).

Typical expected results are:

• Survey of the potential for optimizing the work of the entire board of directors
• Optimization of work in committees such as the Audit Committee, Nomination and Compensation Committee, Strategy Committee
• Definition of goal-oriented preparation and follow-up of meetings, acquisition of dossier competence of the individual Board members
• Strengthening of the social dynamics and culture of discussion in the Board
• Increase the efficiency of meetings and effectiveness of decisions
• Improving the involvement and control of the CEO
• Identification of key competencies of the Board of Directors in line with the corporate strategy

Procedure

Our approach is based on a structured dialogue with the Chairman of the Board, the members of the Board of Directors and, as a rule, the CEO and other key employees such as the CFO or the Secretary of the Board of Directors. During the course of the project, the dialogue is intensified, from the initial survey by questionnaire, through individual interviews with all board members and CEO, to the presentation and discussion of the findings in the full board. The result is a Board Review Report that summarizes the findings and describes the specific areas for action. This report is submitted and explained to the Chairman for further use.