Boards That Make a Difference
Chapter One
Leadership by Governing Boards
A Vision of Group Accountability
The vision I have for boards aims for far higher quality in the
boardroom than has been common. My aim in this opening
chapter is to broadly describe that vision, setting the stage for more
detailed description in the following chapters. To begin, I look at ways
of classifying boards in order to then limit the scope of the book to
governing boards. Next, I describe the peculiar market circumstances
that justify grouping nonprofit and public organizations together. I
then step back to view the difficulty all boards-business, nonprofit,
and public boards alike-have in fulfilling their opportunities, difficulties
so prevalent as to require radical reform in governance thought.
I summarize the normal prescriptions for board ills along with the reasons
that these existing answers are insufficient, including those associated
with the recent international flurry of corporate governance
codes. I make the case that governance deserves special attention apart
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