#boarddecisions – Chairing the board

Four steps to disagreeing agreeably – and better Board decisions

In June 2025, the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ Magazine published a useful article on ‘How boardroom face-offs can improve strategy.’ The author’s thesis was simple: the best decisions rarely emerge from easy agreement. They come from robust, respectful challenge. Or, in the words of my most influential teacher from school – ‘If we’re allContinue reading “Four steps to disagreeing agreeably – and better Board decisions”

Risk – the forgotten axis

Almost every week another building, usually in Wellington, is evacuated because it’s deemed ‘Earthquake Prone’ and either covered in plastic sheeting or left to rot, while the hapless owners consider how they’ll afford the repairs and strengthening that the engineers have mandated. This week for a change it was the turn of the South Island’sContinue reading “Risk – the forgotten axis”

The Wisdom of Wimbledon: Covered Are We

After the SARS outbreak of 2003, someone on the board of the All-England Club (or, more correctly, the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club), which runs the annual Wimbledon Tournament, asked exactly the right question: ‘What if …’ ‘What if we had another event like SARS and had to cancel?’ As a result, the ClubContinue reading “The Wisdom of Wimbledon: Covered Are We”