Combined Governance Assessment
Strengthening cooperation between the supervisory board and the executive board
It is crucial for a high performance board to identify strategic challenges and crises in good time and to overcome them together with the executive board. The effectiveness of supervisory boards depends heavily on how well they communicate with the executive board on an equal footing. As a strategic (sparring) partner of the executive board, they should maintain a close dialog with the executive board in order to constructively question strategies and business models and bring in new perspectives.
Effective cooperation between the executive board and the supervisory board, a common set of values and decision-making, and the creation of trust are of central importance for strong corporate governance.
Based on our extensive project experience, our analysis focuses on the following formal and qualitative aspects of cooperation:
- Understanding and perception of the role of the supervisory board
- Provision of information to the supervisory board by the executive board (clarity, comprehensibility, scheduling of executive board reports)
- Frequency of interaction between the executive board and supervisory board
- Cooperation between the chairman of the supervisory board and the chairman of the executive board
- Discussion culture and cooperation between the two bodies
- Strategic expertise on the supervisory board
The analysis of the cooperation between the executive board and the supervisory board forms an essential part of our self-evaluations, but can also be carried out independently of these, e.g. to accompany strategic transformation processes.
