Gob Cvo

“They say it in private but would never say it in public – board directors are turning a blind eye [in the UK],” he says. “We have a culture where we don’t ask questions.”

“There is no respect given to governance in some countries with which we do business. And governments will do anything to ‘get the deal’.

deliberate misuse of governance:

huge amount of bribery and corruption”

Governance has become “what you shouldn’t do – and adds no value”,

has become so “defensive” it is now “an irrelevant function”,

could not identify the comparative advantage of the company on whose board they sat.

It is the mentoring side of the boardroom – support, stewardship and leadership – that can work well, but when it comes to this role, the UK is “negligent”.

the selection criteria for non-executives is unclear,

the role of the senior independent director can be “opaque” or “irrelevant”.

part of the problem in the UK is the system of appointments, and the “clubbiness” surrounding boards

96 per cent of searches in the US are there for the headhunter to look good and to make an appointment

“American managers are becoming far more vocal about their boards out of sheer frustration – and a sense that unless you speak up, nothing is going to change,”

Australian boardrooms

creating culture at management level and have also tried to restrict the number of positions non-executives can hold

he answer lies not in a greater focus on strategy, but on engagement.

We have treated alignment and engagement as separate, instead of together.”