Role of Boards: building sustainable competitive edge

Abstract

The book is a compelling inquiry into a topic which impacts all companies but stays shrouded in mystery of what ails boards and how they can add value. The Role of Boards explores the issues and challenges that afflict Indian boards, unravels the array of key strategic weapons for winning the corporate war and proposes action steps for architecting a sustainable competitive edge. Packed with signposts, strategic checklist and principles to guide management and organizations towards sustainable corporate excellence and national development, the book is the new boardroom bible in the emerging post-pandemic and technologically disruptive world. It starts with an examination of the ground realities of Indian organizations and the way in which selfishness, scams and scandals are destroying value, hurting stock markets, increasing the gap between the rich and poor and reducing trust. It then conceptually studies the role of various pillars which can be leveraged for building sustainable competitive edge in organizations: continuous innovation, customer centricity, cost and quality leadership, speed to the market, agility, organizational ambidexterity, people power, ethical governance and strategic leadership. To enhance boardroom governance, the book advocates path breaking recommendations especially in terms of its composition, competence, agenda, decision-making and attention to strategic matters apart from the traditional focus on conformance and compliance. The book is unique in its study of Indian boards from the behavioural point of view. It is the first-of-kind to have used the actor approach to examine the nuances and facets of boardroom realities in India and makes recommendations from that vantage point. The book is contextual, rooted in Indian realities, futuristic and recommendatory for enabling corporate India to contribute to the ambitious national endeavour of Atmanirbhartaself-reliant and self-sufficient India.