Corner Office Reads #2: Revisiting Ram Charan's Board Insights

Corner Office Reads #2: Revisiting Ram Charan’s Board Insights

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All the insightful discussions on corporate governance at yesterday's event inspired me to revisit the first reads I had on the topic. In this Corner Office Reads, I’m going back to the basics. Ram Charan’s board readings, Boards at Work, Boards That Deliver, and Boards That Lead, shaped a lot of our thinking on board excellence, making boards a competitive advantage. With the first book published 3 decades ago, the books sure have aged, but his core ideas remain surprisingly relevant.

What stands out? Charan redefined back at the time what a board should be: Not just a compliance body, but a real strategic force. And his practical advice remains powerful:

• Recruit directors who add value and complement each other
• Build deep business knowledge beyond financials
• Watch for future risks, not just current ones
• Make CEO and leader succession an ongoing process, building talent pipelines
• Structure information to spark meaningful discussion, not passive review
• Plan ahead for crisis management

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The challenge: While Charan's approach works well for US boards and other one-tier structures, it needs some tweaks for our systems in the German-speaking world, respecting our two-tier system’s checks and balances. Supervisory boards here have a different relationship with management. We need to figure out how to push strategy forward while respecting the structural separation. Charan’s model of deep involvement can make that line blur, but finding the right way to give input is key.

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Sure, his books reflect a time and place that rather favors one-tier structures. They don't address unique challenges like broader stakeholder interests beyond shareholder value, worker representation, and larger boards. And they don’t reflect modern governance struggles either, which feels somewhat dated in today’s context. Fair points. But if we can move past that, the core message is clear and matters more than ever: Effective boards, whether one-tier or two-tier, must engage deeply to create real value, not just check boxes.

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After 25+ years of working with boards, I’ve seen how Charan’s principles can be applied in both worlds. Other works, like Carter & Lorsch's Back to the Drawing Board and Stanford's Larcker & Tayan research, can also add valuable ideas for boards.

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So, how do you make strategic input work in your board role? Let me know how Charan’s principles have shaped your board work, and feel free to share other resources that have made an impact.

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Here’s to growing together.

Short. Simple. Real. Just like our best leadership conversations.

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