Disruptive change has clearly intensified in today’s fast-paced business world. Why are boards of directors so ineffective in dealing with the threats inherent in every corporate governance system? In Better Boardrooms, Donner Prize winning author Patricia Meredith zeroes in on how boards can help manage uncertainty. Meredith outlines the specific corporate strategies that should be implemented in order to reduce the tremendous waste of resources – financial, human, intellectual, social, and environmental – that occurs when companies fail to respond effectively to forces that are so obviously surrounding them.

To regain the reputation of boards as vibrant enablers of economic growth, Better Boardrooms proposes that a broad cross-section – including policy makers and regulators, customers, suppliers, bankers, and investors – work together to create a system better suited to the business obstacles of the twenty-first century. Discussing how the current corporate system is flawed and in desperate need of a digitally focused restructuring, Better Boardrooms proposes a new model of governance, one based on dialogue and collaboration that ensures all relevant voices are heard and included. As boundaries between industries blur and stakeholders gain greater access to information, it is vital that boards of directors help set corporate strategy rather than simply approve it.

Patricia Meredith is a global thought leader in transformative governance. She works with leaders in both the public and private sectors to take on the challenges of the information age. An accomplished author, consultant and educator, she is a fellow of the Clarkson Institute for Board Effectiveness at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Her previous publication, Catalytic Governance, is also published by University of Toronto Press.

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"Meredith succeeds in making the case for reforming corporate governance and offers some constructive ways forward."

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