The Effective Board: Building Individual and Board Success

The Effective Board is a best practice guide for improving your personal effectiveness and that of the board on which you serve - whether it's for a FTSE company, a small business, a public sector body or a board of trustees. Using case studies and research from the Institute of Directors it provides you with useful insights into the workings of an effective board and the real importance and benefits of good governance.

Dealing with core issues such as the role of the board and the duties of directors, the book moves onto more practical topics such as building effectiveness, leadership and using existing talent to deliver extra competitive value. Special chapters focus on the very latest areas of concern - including NHS Foundation Trusts and the challenges they present for directors; the lessons that directors can learn from the credit crunch of 2008-09; and current issues involving sustainability, risk management and the pensions crisis.

With particular reference to small businesses, the Not-for-Profit sector, and ethics and values, The Effective Board will help you to review and improve your own performance, and respond to the governance challenges in your organization.

Neville Bain has extensive experience at board level. He was Group Strategy Director and later Deputy Group Chief Executive and Finance Director at Cadbury Schweppes in London. Following this he became CEO of the textile, clothing and fashion business, Coats Viyella. Recently he has been undertaking a portfolio career of non-executive roles and establishing smaller businesses, or investing and serving on medium sized companies.

He has been non executive director of Safeway, Scottish & Newcastle, Royal Mail Group (chairman), SHL (chairman), Biocon, and Hogg Robinson Group (chairman). He is also chairman of the Institute of Directors and the author of Successful Management, Winning Ways through Corporate Governance, and The People Advantage.

Roger Barker trained initially as an economist and went on to hold several senior investment banking roles in both the UK and Switzerland. He has a doctorate in corporate governance from Oxford University, and has also acted as an adviser on corporate governance to the EU Economic and Social Committee in Brussels. He isi also a visiting lecturer at the Said Business School (University of Oxford) and the Ministry of Defence.