Enron had quite an impressive board of directors. The 17-member group was almost certainly too big, but beyond that it met or exceeded most modern criteria for good corporate governance: company insiders were a tiny minority; the jobs of chairman and CEO were separated; the key role of audit committee chairman was held by a respected outsider who presumably understood accounting (at least, he taught it at Stanford). What could possibly go wrong?
Throwing Out Insiders Won’t Fix Corporate Boards
So why does this idea persist, despite the mostly contradictory evidence?
October 17, 2012
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What you need to know about being in charge.