Opinion & Analysis
When the board fails to tame a CEO
From an employee’s view, the CEO represents the highest authority in the organisation. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, March 1 2010 at 00:00
This is even more so where such a CEO is the founder of the organisation and inevitably suffers from “founder’s syndrome” which is common where there has only been one person leading the organisation or the board of directors since its inception and is common in non-profit and commercial organisations that grow beyond their early stages.
During the early phases of the organisation the board tends to be selected by the founder and are either like-minded individuals or people who can be trusted to ‘rubber stamp’ the founder’s decisions rather than offering a more representative view.
As the organisation grows, professionally-trained people are engaged and the board is expanded.
The founder’s domination of the decision making process can frustrate effective group decision making.
The founder becomes the Canadian lighthouse, entrenched in the bedrock of the coastline that can stand in the face of naval destroyers in the form of a board that lacks the wherewithal to challenge his performance.
It takes a confident and independent board to rein in a CEO and an even braver board to resign en masse in the face of adversity as the previous Youth Development Fund board did last year. It was their call, and they called on the side of integrity.
Carol.musyoka@bungani.com
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