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Board effectiveness

How can boards work better and improve their effectiveness?

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Articles & features

How to reap the benefits of a shadow board
  • May 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
A turbulent business environment is galvanising support for the concept of the shadow board. A new ICAEW guide explains how they work, how your organisation might benefit and the main considerations for setting one up.
Start with 'Why': Top Tips for Effective Board Reports
  • Apr 2024
  • Kristina Kopic
Effective board reports enable informed decision-making and strategic alignment. However, crafting a board report that supports your board’s decision-making requires more than just compiling data and financial results. It demands communicating the report’s purpose clearly, understanding the requirements of the trustees, and anchoring the reports in the charity’s strategic priorities.
CFO most diverse C-suite role amid patchy progress
  • Mar 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
White men still hold three-quarters of chair, CEO or CFO roles across FTSE 350 and more than half of board and executive committee positions, study finds.
Horizon: lessons for software procurement
  • Feb 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
As the issues with the Post Office’s Horizon software make headlines, we look at how buyers must work with vendors during the software procurement process.
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CPD Training courses

Stay on top of the rapidly evolving corporate governance landscape and discover how to be a high-performing board director.
Corporate governance courses
Octopus

Guidance

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE How boards of accounting and finance firms can benefit from shadow boards
  • Helpsheets and support
  • May 2024
Shadow boards can be considered as a tool for navigating a turbulent and ever-changing business landscape. Find out how accountancy businesses can see the same benefits from setting up a shadow board that other sectors are already experiencing.
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
  • Report
  • Nov 2021
  • PDF (246kb)
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
Exclusive BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT FACULTY SR72 The aspiring CFO
  • Report
  • Nov 2021
  • PDF (1,950kb)
A practical, realistic, hands-on and immense learning opportunity of all you need to know to become the CFO
Avoiding information overload insurance
  • Helpsheets and support
  • Jan 2020
  • PDF (287kb)
This guide offers practical examples and checklists for those working in or with the insurance industry to avoid information overload.
SUSTAINABILITY Is Climate Change a Board issue?
  • Report
  • Nov 2019
Given the far-reaching impact and implications, of climate change there is a need for boards to better understand how it is likely to affect their organisations and sectors so they can make better informed and more strategic decisions. However in a recent survey of ICAEW’s UK business members (Jun/July 2019), only 37% were aware of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Principles and only 15% were aware of the FSB’s Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures.
Exclusive BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT FACULTY Special Report 65 - Smart Reporting
  • Report
  • Sep 2019
  • PDF (1,597kb)
This special report will be a handy go-to guide – we take you through the latest techniques and thinking behind the new smart world with which CFOs, and aspiring CFOs, must contend.
FINANCIAL SERVICES FACULTY Information overload: effective boards and committees in financial services
  • Thought leadership report
  • Feb 2019
  • PDF (2,007kb)
This report provides practical recommendations to improve the provision of information in board packs within financial services.
FINANCIAL SERVICES FACULTY Information overload: effective boards and committees in financial services
  • Thought leadership report
  • Feb 2019
ICAEW provides practical recommendations to reduce the size of board packs and make them more effective for boards. Our proposals will enable board chairs, management, executives and non-executives to improve their own papers, ensure that responsibilities are clearly defined and make sure that non-executives do not have to deal with information overload. The proposals we provide work in the context of three overarching principles.

The new boardroom agenda

The key to success in any organisation is long term, sustainable growth but managing that is harder than ever. Faster moving, more complex risks – and opportunities – require more assiduous monitoring, more informed decision-making, and much greater coordination among all employees to ensure corporate success.

Our new content series explores the central role board members play in this endeavour and how crucial they are to any organisation’s long term health.

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Karen Hester with a wall of kegs behind her

Webinars and other recordings

Groupthink: the boardroom’s most pervasive problem?
  • Podcast
  • 28 Jun 2024
In this episode of Behind the Numbers, we discuss strategies to prevent and tackle groupthink at board level.
Exclusive Crisis prevention: the role of directors and the board
  • Webinar
  • 13 Mar 2024
Hear from our expert panel to help you prepare your organisation and board for preventing a crisis.
Exclusive Ten steps to become a high performing board
  • Webinar
  • 27 Jun 2023
Join us to look at this framework for good governance and how to apply the Ten Steps principles to all governance work. We will set out to discover what makes the difference between good and great in the boardroom.
Exclusive Board games: How to simplify the complex and win at board reporting
  • Webinar
  • 02 Dec 2021
The practical challenges of information governance and controls and the potential solutions.
Exclusive A view from the board: CFOs and the COVID-19 response
  • Webinar
  • 10 Sep 2021
In this webinar we will hear from celebrated author of “Boards”, Patrick Dunne, who will share his recent experience of working with CFOs throughout the COVID-19 crisis and how this has influenced their dynamic with the board.
Exclusive From Asos to Arcadia: how do boards stay on top of trends?
  • Webinar
  • 22 Apr 2021
Hear from expert speakers on the changing shape of retail and board responsibility
Exclusive Lessons from lockdown: how will 2020’s AGM season affect the future of governance?
  • Webinar
  • 12 Nov 2020
As businesses fight their way through turbulent times, lessons can be drawn from the challenges of AGM season during the COVID-19 crisis.
Top tips for securing board level support for counter fraud
  • Webinar
  • 18 May 2020
An overview of why it is important to gain board level support for counter fraud activity and create an ethical culture in your organisation.

Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service

Eligible firms have free access to Bloomsbury Professional's comprehensive online library, comprising around 80 titles from some of the country's leading tax and accounting subject matter experts. Find out who is eligible and how you can access the Accounting and Tax Service.
Exclusive Directors, the Board and the company secretary
  • eBook chapter
  • 2023
  • Mark Cardale
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Rights and Duties of Directors
A chapter discussing the role of the board, board sub-committees, board effectiveness and decision making, board evaluation, board meetings and the board and the company secretary.
Exclusive Leadership
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
A chapter focusing on effective leadership by the board and its members.
Exclusive The effective board
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
A chapter analysing what makes boards effective, including achieving boardroom diversity and the role of board reviews.
Exclusive Effective boards and directors
  • eBook chapter
  • 2020
  • Andrew Chambers
  • Bloomsbury Professional
  • Corporate Governance Handbook
Practical guidance on the effectiveness of boards and directors, covering a wide variety of corporate governance issues.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the Acceptable usage terms.

eBooks

The Library & Information Service provides a collection of eBooks as a benefit of membership. Please note that ICSA publications are only available to ICAEW members and ACA students.  Please log in to access these titles. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support or contact library@icaew.com
Exclusive Corporate governance handbook
  • eBook
  • 2017
  • Bernadette Barber | Barbara Allen
  • ICSA Publishing
The ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook provides full explanations of the statutory and regulatory regime applicable to listed companies but also,addresses how governance best practice might be applied by private companies, including subsidiaries.
Exclusive Maintaining an effective board
  • eBook chapter
  • 2017
  • ICSA Publishing
  • ICSA Publishing
  • The ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook
Chapter 9 looks at the board and good governance, which includes the work of the nomination committee. Board diversity, corporate culture, succession planning and recruitment to the board, director induction and development and board evaluation are all covered.
Exclusive Good boardroom practice: a guide for directors and company secretaries
  • eBook chapter
  • 2016
  • Douglas Armour
  • ICSA Publishing
  • Company Secretarys Handbook
An authoritative guide to company secretarial practice. Detailed commentary is accompanied by over 80 precedents. Appendix 3 - Good boardroom practice: a guide for directors and company secretaries
Exclusive Non-executive director's handbook 4th edition
  • eBook
  • 2016
  • Brian Coyle
  • ICSA Publishing
An essential source of reference and route map for the position of Non-executive director. Contains case studies and checklists throughout.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Industry press

The Library & Information Service provides a collection of articles as a benefit of membership. Please log in to view these articles. If you are unable to access the articles, please see our Help and support page or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive AI at the crossroads: Revamping board structures for effective governance.
  • Apr 2024
  • Tom Petro
  • National Association of Corporate Directors
The article focuses on the dilemma faced by corporate boards regarding the oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, questioning which committee is best suited for governing AI's multifaceted risks. The author explores potential contenders for this role, including the risk management committee, a dedicated AI governance committee, and the technology committee, each offering unique expertise and perspectives tailored to the challenges posed by AI governance.
Exclusive The leopard’s spots: changing change management
  • Apr 2023
  • Peter Buell Hirsch
  • Emerald Publishing Limited
A study into the tension between ongoing change management initiatives, the speed of C Suite transitions and the shrinking of middle management. The author's review of industry data suggests that the increase in change management initiatives set against senior management instability and a loss of middle management is leading to diminishing returns. They suggest that increasing stability and consistency in core areas is becoming more important to corporate financial success.
Exclusive Pricing and CEOs: why top executives need to get involved
  • Aug 2021
  • Andreas Hinterhuber, Stephan M.Liozu
  • Emerald Publishing Limited
The authors conducted 49 interviews with executives from pricing software vendors, to understand how the best-performing companies use pricing to drive profits and select pricing technologies.
Exclusive From CA to C-Suite
  • Feb 2021
  • Matthew Brace
  • Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand
The rise to CFO is not solely about your skills in financial planning or capital management. The job also takes empathy, courage and resilience. But can that be learned? Matthew Brace looks at how mentoring can help you develop the necessary skills to become CFO.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access articles subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Useful links

The Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre (GLIC)
  • Website
  • Cranfield School of Management
The GLIC is a research community which collaborates with industry and produces high quality research in the areas of gender, leadership and inclusion at work. The centre, which is part of Cranfield University's School of Management, is responsible for an annual benchmarking report, The Female FTSE Board Report which has been published since 1999 and includes details of the number of female directors on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards. The website provides information on the work of the centre, its research projects and published research papers.
Board diversity and efffectiveness in FT350 companies
  • Website
  • July 2021
  • Financial Reporting Council
Research by The FRC and the London Business School designed to both understand the implications of changes in board diversity in response to the Davies Review, Hampton-Alexander review and the Parker Review and to look forward, to suggest how they can be accelerated. The report was launched with the press release Diverse boards lead to better corporate culture and performance
Audit Committee effectiveness 2020 Framework
  • Website
  • January 2021
  • Deloitte
This practical self assessment guide and checklist covers all aspects of the audit committee’s remit for companies outside the financial sector.
Female FTSE Board report 2020
  • Website
  • September 2020
  • Cranfield University
Annual benchmarking report by the Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre at Cranfield University, which has been published since 1999 and includes details of the number of female non-executive directors on the corporate boards of the UK's top 100 companies
Disclaimer

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided ‘as is’ with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

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