The Board Index

Moving Beyond Compliance & Checkboxes

The exclusive objective of The Board Index is to help your board be the best it can be by assessing and enhancing its effectiveness. The Board Index helps directors and officers of public and private companies assess and enhance the overall effectiveness of their boards by focusing on the structure and composition, the role of the directors and the leadership of the board. The keys to risk management are knowledge, transparency, and accountability. The Board Index is the only evaluation tool available that can provide this value, because it is the only board-driven, anonymous, confidential, accredited and web-based evaluation tool to assess boards internally and against best practices. The Board Index allows directors and officers to assess the strengths of your Board and highlight areas for improvement. The independent, secure board evaluation is both quantitative and qualitative – essential to providing substantive feedback your board needs. Questions, analysis and best practices were developed in cooperation with CEO’s, directors and leading experts in corporate governance, finance, law, accounting, compensation, shareholder issues regulatory bodies and associations as well as survey research and behavioral experts.

Benefits

  • Improve Performance – Our report enables your board to establish a baseline and benchmark against internal metrics and best practices.
  • Respond to Key Metrics – Our Indexes are customizable for your company and situation, to respond to any key metrics that you need.
  • Annual Evaluation and Director Educational Mandates – TBI is accredited by RiskMetrics/ISS, allowing you to assess your board and fulfill director continuing education requirements simultaneously.
  • Make Better, Clearer Decisions – Our process helps directors identify and understand strengths and areas to improve,
  • Avoid Mistakes – Contrary to other approaches, TBI is objective, independent, and comprehensive. With complete security, anonymity, and confidentiality, directors can answer freely and candidly, resulting in a valid report
  • Recognize and Respond to Emerging Regulations – TBI proactively integrates the changing governance practices, laws, and regulations into its indexes.
  • Enhance Insurance Coverage – Directors & Officers’ insurers provide enhanced policies and the potential for reduced rates to boards of directors who conduct substantive evaluations.

How does it work?

The Board Index is a user-friendly process that can be facilitated internally or by an outside consultant who works with the board to develop an action plan to respond to any issues raised.
Step 1: Board members (and others, at the board’s discretion), anonymously, confidentially, and securely complete a comprehensive, online questionnaire. This takes approximately 15-20 minutes. Upon completion, drawing on scientific methodology, the questionnaires are compiled and scored.
Step 2: A report of the results and analysis is immediately available to your evaluation administrator and other key stakeholders, as the board determines appropriate, either online or on paper. The report, which is a composite and provides no identifying information about individual respondents or the company, consists of: An overall Board Index score, feedback about board structure and composition, the role of the director, and leadership of the board. Top five strengths, the five areas to improve and response ranges. A detailed inventory of specific questions with scores, ranges, comparisons, and anonymous comments, together with targeted best practices, stock exchange requirements, regulatory rules, and relevant Sarbanes-Oxley mandates.
It’s as simple as that.