This “Refocus the Agenda” report from Corporate Board Member and the EY Americas Center for Board Matters, based on their survey of 256 directors, provides important insights and tips for corporate secretaries and other members of management and boards about board and committee meeting schedules, agenda content and time allocation, and meeting presentations and materials.
Among the key takeaways are directors’ dissatisfaction with the time allocated in board meetings to management presentations that effectively reiterate pre-read materials and thus reduce the time available for substantive, strategic discussion, as well as the allegedly excessive management focus on historical data rather than forward-looking information and analysis.
While surveys necessarily reflect the views of limited respondent groups, the views captured in this report should (at a minimum) be cause for reflection, reconsideration, and discussion of some long-standing board and committee meeting practices, with due consideration for other relevant factors such as documentation and other legal concerns.