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.

Until they served on a board, people may well imagine that directors behave rationally, that board level discussions are analytical, and that decisions are reached after careful consideration of alternatives. Not often. Experience of board meetings, or of the activities of any governing body for that matter, shows that reality can be quite different. Directors' behaviour is influenced by interpersonal relationships, by perceptions of position and prestige, and by the process of power. Board and committee meetings involve a political process.