Ralph Ward


Five Tips for First-Time Board Members

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 1, 2000

For too long, corporate directors have been supposed to know everything, so much so that they're afraid to ask when they don't know something. This is mos...  Read story

Four Board Evaluation Problems - And Solutions

By Ralph Ward |  Feb 2, 2001

Corporate boards are figuring out that regular, pointed evaluation of themselves is vital to improving the job they do. But just because your board has ma...  Read story

Best Practices: Boardroom Orientation

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 2000

Orientation is crucial to bringing new board directors up to speed quickly, and it' s useful to see what a best-practice board puts into something as basi...  Read story

Attracting Top Names to Your Advisory Board

By Ralph Ward |  May 1, 2000

Q: Our software company is growing very fast, looking toward an IPO next year. However, our product competes with some really big, we...  Read story

Let Some Outsiders Govern the Family Business

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 1999

A productive, tough-minded, independent board of directors is just the ticket for many family-owned businesses -- but unfortunately few ever get one. "It'...  Read story

Best Practices of Board Chairs

By Ralph Ward |  Mar 1, 2000

If we look at chairing the corporate board as a distinct job, what are some of the best practices that go into its job description? According to people wh...  Read story

Finding Diverse Candidates for Your Board

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

Q. Our company is a major presence in our community, but we recently settled a discrimination suit that has brought local attention t...  Read story

Hot Tip: Board Conflict Resolution

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

To paraphrase a business cliché, a board where everyone thinks alike is a board where no one is thinking. As boardroom risks have increased, so has board...  Read story

A Boardroom " Bill Of Rights"

By Ralph Ward |  Apr 1, 2001

You probably hear plenty about your duties and responsibilities as a corporate director. But what about your rights as a board member? Even good governanc...  Read story

Building a Great Board

Oct 17, 2000

A rethinking of business governance is taking place, as Tahl Raz points out in the March 2003 story, "Read story

Building a Great Board

A rethinking of business governance is taking place, as Tahl Raz points out in the March 2003 story, "Read story

A Boardroom Pro's Governance Gems

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 1999

William Adams, a retired chairman of Armstrong World Industries and a member of several other corporate boards, is a pro on good boardroom procedures. Rec...  Read story

Diving Into The Media

Mar 1, 2004

How valuable is press coverage, anyway? Plus, when investors say no.  Read story

Predictions for the Future Boardroom

By Ralph Ward |  Sep 24, 2001

Corporate governance is one of the fastest-changing fields in business, stirring almost as much recent turmoil as the exploding balloon of the dotcom and ...  Read story

Board Evaluation: Liability Dangers?

By Ralph Ward |  May 8, 2001

Having a strong evaluation process for your board is so valuable and helpful in improving board quality that I almost hesitate to mention a potential down...  Read story

The Surprising Rules of Boardroom Etiquette

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

The business world offers no other environment quite like the boardroom. The risks are very high, the rules are vague, and the directors often powerful, a...  Read story

Seven Ways to Avoid Merger Blunders

By Ralph Ward |  Feb 1, 2000

The pace of corporate mergers just keeps on accelerating, but often directors face a "bet the company" merger decision with too little time, facts, or adv...  Read story

Reluctant Board Candidates: Friendly Persuasion

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 11, 2001

Every year, boardroom burdens increase, more board candidates find themselves "boarded up," and the average director tenure grows a bit shorter. As a resu...  Read story

Five Ways to Beat Board Presentation Blues

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

Boardroom chemistry involves more than just the directors. If you're a nondirector member of staff making a presentation to the board, knowing your etique...  Read story

A Boardroom Generation Gap

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

The booming digital economy of the last decade has spawned lots of twentysomething zillionaires. Though their stock options may not be as rich as they wer...  Read story

4 How-To Ideas For Global Directors

By Ralph Ward |  Mar 27, 2001

Though it's by no means a megatrend, the number of corporate boards adding international directors is steadily growing (even at smaller, hometown companie...  Read story

Board Searches: What's Hot in 2001?

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

The search for boardroom talent continues, with the stakes growing ever higher as we demand more time, effort and specific skills of our directors. Every ...  Read story

Beef Up Your Board Committees

By Ralph Ward |  Apr 1, 2000

As board work becomes more intense, technical, and specialized, the burden is increasingly shifting to boards' committees. But are your committee structur...  Read story

Four Tips for Working with Board Search Firms

By Ralph Ward |  Sep 24, 2001

As boards increasingly become less an informal network of cronies and more a hardworking corporate resource, the search for new board members becomes incr...  Read story

Handy Online Audit " Financial Literacy" Test

By Ralph Ward |  Aug 9, 2001

It's coming up on a year since the SEC and major stock exchanges started cracking down on "financial literacy" requirements for U.S. board audit committee...  Read story

Board Building Tips from the 2000 Inc. 500 #1 Company

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 2000

The Parson Group just came in at #1 on the 2000 Inc. 500 list ( see article ), and Pa...  Read story

Insider Strategies on Leading a Board

By Ralph Ward |  Mar 1, 2000

Former chair of Citicorp, leader of the banking revolution that put ATMs on every street, member of many boards, and the defining business insider - that'...  Read story

Five Boardroom Flash Points for Young Companies

By Ralph Ward |  May 1, 2000

Younger companies often face some tricky issues that seem to pop up sooner or later, and a good board can be hugely helpful in dealing with them. Hal Shea...  Read story

Five Tips for Putting Your Board Online

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 1, 1999

Using Communications Technology for Better Board Results June Klein, president of Technology & Marketing Ventures in New York City...  Read story

Shake Up an Inbred Board

By Ralph Ward |  Feb 1, 2000

Whether it's the board of a start-up, a family firm, or a closely held company, there always comes a point when you need to crack open the boardroom door ...  Read story

Five Tips for Savvy Board Travel Planning

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 2000

First, let? s accept that corporate travel gets more and more frustrating hassle every year. Next, let? s acknowledge that arranging travel for board meet...  Read story

Bankruptcy and Your Board: 6 Rules to Remember

By Ralph Ward |  Mar 27, 2001

As a result of the slump that's hit tech and dotcom stocks over the past year, combined with a general economic slowdown, many companies once swimming in ...  Read story

Your Board as Matchmaker

By Ralph Ward |  May 1, 2000

No doubt the wisdom your directors offer inside the boardroom is invaluable, but it's the networking and contacts they can deliver from outside that reall...  Read story

Four Ways a Board Can Help Manage a Merger

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

A fidgety economy is doing nothing to slow the tide of mergers and acquisitions, but it is making more and more of the last decade' s brilliant deals look...  Read story

What If I Vote " No" ?

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 29, 2001

Q: " I' m on the board of a growing manufacturing company, and our chairman/CEO is launching a strong acquisition program. He' s worked out a deal to ...  Read story

Using Technology to Better Your Board

By Ralph Ward |  Jul 1, 2000

All of the new pressures hammering corporate governance lately boil down to one simple (if brutal) operational equation -- less time, plus more oversight,...  Read story

Give Your Board a Style Audit

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 2000

Every corporate board develops its own unique chemistry based on such factors as membership, leadership, company history, and power blocs. But is your boa...  Read story

The Start-Up Board

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 1999

Randal Walti, head of Oaktree Consulting in Rancho Palos Verde, Calif., specializes in CEO coaching, but he's also been a director of more start-up compan...  Read story

Tips for Board Benchmarking

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 1999

Benchmarking is making its way out of corporate TQM programs and into the boardroom where it can help you develop your own best practices in corporate gov...  Read story

Coping with the Boardroom Talent Pinch

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 1999

The search for good directors to serve on corporate boards has become tougher and tougher, a toss-up between opposing trends. The tide of mergers has free...  Read story

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