Boardroom INSIDER for… JUNE
SETTING A HIGHER STANDARD FOR BOARD ETHICS
Business ethics. It’s a term that’s both loaded and vague. And as an article in the June issue of online monthly Boardroom INSIDER notes, the stakes are even higher when it comes to ethics for corporate boards.
“Asking if a company action is legal – your first and most obvious duty – is not the same as asking if it’s ethical,” writes BI publisher and business speaker Ralph Ward. By the time the world’s business leaders ascend to boardroom roles, they’ve learned the personal ethical guardrails for issues such as conflicts of interest, insider trading, and fraud. But, Ward notes that in a boardroom role, directors deal with next-level ethical concerns.
First, their extensive networks blur easy lines between overt corruption and “helping out a friend,” demanding more attention to “tone at the top.” Second, and more difficult, boards often overlook dangers or malfeasance inside the company not through ethical failures, but because “the numbers they see are vague, unrevealing, or buried in massive board info packs.” Ward notes that this pushes the standard for boardroom ethics to a higher level, “not just reviewing what you see, but questioning what you don’t see.”
Also in Boardroom INSIDER for June…
How board tech committees are evolvingAI prompts that will make you a better director
Q&A: When a “noisy resignation” from the board hits
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Coming summer 2025… Ralph Ward’s new book
Hacking the Boardroom (Taylor & Francis) is the lifesaver every director needs today. This is the intelligence that boards must have to do a better oversight job, in less time, with less effort, and fewer legal dangers. Proven “how to” insights from front-line board members, CEOs, corporate staffers, top consultants and legal advisors. Corporations, nonprofits, government enterprises… any organization where directors are battling 21st Century governance realities will learn from the hacks in this “owner’s manual for the boardroom.”
Visit the Hacking the Boardroom site, or drop me a note for the latest updates on publication and pre-orders.
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RALPH WARD…
…is an internationally-recognized writer and commentator on the role of boards of directors, the secrets of how benchmark boards excel, gaining a board seat, and the future of governance worldwide.
Ward is the publisher of the online email newsletter Boardroom INSIDER, the worldwide source for practical, first-hand advice on better boards and directors ( www.boardroominsider.com).
He is author of the books Board Seeker: Your Guidebook and Career Map into the Corporate Boardroom (2018), Boardroom Q&A (2011), The New Boardroom Leaders (2008), Saving the Corporate Board (2003), Improving Corporate Boards: The Boardroom INSIDER Guidebook (2000), and 21st Century Corporate Board (1997).
Ward is a CPD-certified trainer, and speaks internationally on board and governance topics, and presents a “Boardroom Masterclass” seminar worldwide, with recent programs in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. His media appearances including CNNfn, C-SPAN, Voice of America, Bloomberg Money Show, National Public Radio, Marketplace, and CNBC (U.S. and U.K.).
Ward has also edited The Corporate Board magazine, the international journal of corporate governance, since 1990. He writes and comments on boardroom matters for a number of other publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Across the Board, Crains, Vital Speeches, the Detroit Free Press, Barrons and INC.com., and serves on several advisory and non-profit boards.