Boardroom Issues

As the only woman on a board of directors, Helen feels a strong aversion to socialising with her colleagues on golfing days and wine-tasting sessions. But as Mary-Louise Angoujard explains, this is all about organisational politics, not gender.

So much for boardroom diversity. As a new report highlights, in the UK at least, the CEOs of large public companies are now more likely than ever to have a background in accountancy.

Looking externally for a new CEO could be a waste of time and money. Because a new study has found that companies that only appoint internal candidates as CEO significantly outperform those that appoint outsiders.

A dominant CEO isn't just going to polarise the opinions of those who have to work with him. According to a new study, they can also deliver performance that is either much worse than other companies, or much better.

Board level directors in the UK are out of touch with their staff and living in a 'boardroom bubble', according to new research from leadership institute, Roffey Park.

CEOs are hardly ever given, or asked to provide, a list of criteria by which they can expect to be judged. But common objectives and criteria, while generally unspoken, do exist for all CEOs in all businesses.

If you've long suspected that those who make it to the top of organizations are not necessarily those with the most talent or ability, new research suggests that your suspicions could well be correct.

Efforts to increase the number of women in the boardrooms of Britain's largest companies have failed, according to new research, with almost no change in the number of female directors over the past year.

Proposed changes in British corporate governance rules look like falling far short of what is needed for real boardroom reform because they fail to deal with the massive accumulation of power by boards or kickstart the the process of returning power to owners.

A new study has found that far from making real improvements in corporate governance, many CEOs actively try to hoodwink equity analysts about the composition and independence of their boards.

For the first time in ten years, the bosses of the UK's largest companies enjoyed pay rises less than those of the average British worker in 2009.

Companies embracing diversity and increasing the number of women at board level may be heading for a profit slump if they already have good governance structures in place, a leading academic has warned.

Amid all the talk of austerity, there has been precious little evidence of belt-tightening among Britain's top bosses over the past year, despite the value of their companies falling by a third.

In a crisis you want your most experienced captain at the helm, which is why American and European boardrooms are doing all they can to keep their most battle-tested CEOs in place until things pick up.

Better coaching by senior management and encouraging women to aspire to board-level positions can make a big difference in helping to shatter the glass ceiling.

President Obama's tough new caps on executive pay may only apply to firms that have been bailed out by the government but it'll be a brave CEO who tries to argue that its effects will not ripple across the wider economy.

It's not just front-line workers who are losing their jobs. Six chief executives headed for the exit every day during 2008, the highest rate of turnover for a decade.

The global economic slowdown may be putting the brakes on executive pay, but there is still a huge gap between the super-wealthy boardroom elite and the rest.

Downturn or not, the maxim for an increasing number of companies when it comes to attracting and retaining their top executives is, if you're good, you're worth it.

If you have ambitions to become CEO of a public company, your chances will be much improved if you're an eldest child with a strong record of achievement on the sports field.

Most British managers expect to see knee-jerk job cuts, short-termism and panic at the first whiff of recession.

The notion that women bring less experience to the boardroom table than their male counterparts is nonsense, a new study has suggested.

More evidence has emerged to suggest that the highest performing companies are generally led by the best paid and most financially motivated CEOs.

Eight out of 10 senior British business leaders recognise climate change is becoming a serious business issue, yet they have no idea whether to see it as a threat or opportunity.

It's perhaps no wonder nine out of 10 European M&As fail to meet their objectives when senior managers take more than two and a half months to parachute in their new teams.

If you thought that CEOs need to be emotionally intelligent people managers with the ability to lead through example, you might want to think again.

Amid turmoil in the global financial markets, business confidence is on the decline and fear of recession has topped the list of worries that keep CEOs awake at night.

With four out of 10 of the UK's top chief executives now coming from abroad, there are concerns that UK firms are not doing enough to develop home-grown talent.

Europe's boardrooms are still stubbornly male, with women making up fewer than a tenth of board-level positions, a disparity that could take almost 60 years to resolve.

Britain's top executives have seen their earnings double in the past five years, with the average chief executive now taking home more than £3 million a year.

Every investor would love to have a crystal ball that forecast a company's future innovations. Now researchers believe they are able to do just that.

You might have thought the growing reliance of many businesses on cutting edge technology would have given CIOs an pivotal position within the boardroom. Far from it.

Fortune 500 companies with more women on their boards achieve significantly better financial performance than those that are male-dominated, new research has revealed.

If you have ambitions to sit on the board of one of Britain's blue-chip corporations, you may want to think again. Because the number of top jobs is declining rapidly.

Financial services companies are becoming increasingly alarmed about their IT systems as research shows that employees are responsible for almost a third of IT security breaches.

America's demanding compliance climate means senior lawyers are increasingly commanding top-dollar salaries and bonuses.

Ambitious youngest children look away now. First-borns dominate American boardrooms and an oldest child is much more likely to become a CEO.

Technology risks figure higher on the agenda of UK company boards than ever before. But new research questions whether board members really have sufficient understanding of IT to address them adequately.

The typical CEO of a top U.S. corporation earns more in a single workday than the average American takes home in an entire year. And there's no sign that the gap is getting narrower.

Bosses at Britain's biggest companies saw their pay rise by more than a third last year, with the average total package for a chief executive now nudging the £3m mark.

In this day and age, it simply isn't possible for a single "celeb CEO" to take the helm of a complex organisation, making all the decisions and demanding sole control. That's one of the points made by Robert Heller in a wide-ranging discussion about CEOs, pay and leadership for this week's Working Week podcast.

Ambitious CFO who want to raise their profile and influence need to lift their eyes from their spreadsheets and P&Ls and look at the wider people-related issues facing their organisations.

Their salaries may have risen by six per cent last year, but British non-execs are far from being fat-cats. Because their salary growth has slowed dramatically despite the demands on their time rising fast.

Boards are now quick to replace underperforming CEOs and are focusing more on grooming in-house leaders as those imported from outside continue to disappoint.

The world may still look to America for corporate leadership, but the signs are that U.S. CEOs are becoming more isolationist – happy to offshore operations abroad but less interested in chasing growth outside North America.

CEO pay in the U.S. has continued to rise on the back of strong corporate results and shareholder returns, with performance-related incentives making up a growing proportion of total remuneration.

So-called "Celeb CEOs" who court the media spotlight, enjoy the trappings of corporate life and are not used to being second-guessed should steer well clear of private equity backed buy-outs, a leading industry figure has told the Financial Times.

Company directors too often duck making crucial decisions about information technology, preferring to delegate to faceless committees that fail to see the bigger, strategic picture.

Women in south and eastern Asian countries are more likely to break through the boardroom glass ceiling than their contemporaries in Britain, despite the UK devoting vast sums to promoting diversity and gender equality.

The massive rewards paid to many chief executives are a "perversion of market principles" and cannot be justified by arguing that the top job comes with high risks, a new British report has claimed.

Britain's trade unions have claimed that boardroom pay is out of control after they released figures showing that boardroom salaries have more than doubled over the past six years while average earnings have barely risen at all.

Despite acknowledging the importance CEO succession, new research has found that a remarkable proportion of U.S. organisations have failed to put succession plans in place.

A deep-seated lack of commitment from senior managers to developing and nurturing talent is potentially costing British businesses millions of pounds a year.

Nearly half of the 1,000 largest U.S firms have no women in the upper echelons of their senior management, and a fifth of the rest have only a symbolic presence, damning new research has revealed.

It isn't just on the shop floor where staff are suffering from a crisis of engagement. Fewer than half of the faces around your boardroom table are fully committed to their jobs, either, a new study has revealed.

Every now and then journalists get obsessed with identifying the most powerful women in business. But what does 'power' actually mean - and what about it's limitations?

The strong performance of many FTSE 100 companies in the UK is being reflected in big increases in the pay and bonuses of top executives, with their total earnings rising by 30 per cent over the past year.

Doctor-turned investment banker Robert Kuhn has identified 12 diseases common in CEOs, some of which can morph stealthily into major corporate illnesses. Se if you recognise any of them . . .

Despite becoming more cautious about the amount they pay their top executives, the UK's top companies are still not doing enough to prove to their shareholders that they are not rewarding mediocrity.

American bosses saw their bonuses go up by almost half this year and their cash compensation by nearly a third, further fuelling the debate over the level of executive remuneration.