Corporate governance is becoming increasingly Board
centric. Let us take an example of a Board of a large
international corporation, such as Nestle, with several
hundred subsidiaries across the globe – How can
we design a corporate governance framework that
enables proper functioning of the business, ensures
accountability to shareholders and stakeholders,
assures compliance as well as enhances performance
and sustainability?
The Board of Directors should play a specific role to
emphasize the long-term view of business, especially
when the executive management is driven too much by
short-term pressures. It is important that the Board is not
dealing with too many details and that they stick to their
Interview with Dr. Helmut Maucher
Article by Leonardo Peklar
Hawkamah issue02 56pages.indd 7
main task. Otherwise, strategic leadership loses flexibility.
The essentials for the board supervision are: the right of
information, appointment of the top-management and the
provision of advice, especially on strategic issues.
I have never seen a company that has been successful
in the long run, where the Board was very good and the
management was very weak. And I have never seen a
Company where the management was very strong and the
Board was weak, which was not successful.
To summarize, according to my opinion - the key is in the
hands of management and the most important role of the
Board is to appoint the right management and dismiss the
wrong one. We unfortunately too often see Boards that
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9/19/13 10:07 AM