There is now overwhelming evidence that the board system is falling well short of adequately performing its assigned duties. Without fundamental improvement by individual boards, the entire board system will continue to be attacked as impotent and irrelevant and the boards of troubled and failing companies will, with good reason, increasingly become the targets of not only aggrieved and angry shareholders but also employees, creditors, suppliers, governments, and the public.

A company, in a free market economy, is an economic and social organisation transforming inputs into outputs and exchanging these in the market place. It is therefore at the centre of a complex web of socio-economic relationships. Whilst many of these relationships are circumscribed by law and regulation, the key factors in these relationships are not always obvious, since often many qualitative and non-quantifiable factors need to be considered. The board of directors, as custodian of the company's prosperity, must recognise and evaluate these qualitative factors in much of its decision-making.