NEW BOOK ASKS: WHY DO CORPORATE BOARDS SUCK?

The new book "Saving the Corporate Board" (John Wiley & Sons, April 2003) takes a controversial look at why corporate boards of directors failed so badly in the past year's global business scandals -- and how boards can be reformed.

Enron... Tyco... Global Crossing... Kmart -- after a year of shattering corporate scandals (and tough new federal reform laws), why are fresh corporate misdeeds sprouting at companies like HealthSouth and Sprint? Because we never fixed the root of our corporate governance problem -- the corporate board.

In the controversial new book Saving the Corporate Board (April 2003, John Wiley & Sons), business writer and board expert Ralph D. Ward probes America's shocking governance failures, and finds them at the heart of every corporate board of directors.

Ward digs deep to analyze key boardroom failings of communication, structure, CEO/board power, pay, and administration. He pulls no punches -- the book's working title was "10 reasons why corporate boards suck," which include the board's "failure as an overseer, as an auditor and as the shareholder's cop on the beat."

Ward, who publishes the Boardroom INSIDER online newsletter and speaks and consults globally on boardroom issues, warns that new reforms, like the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, add harsh punishments for corporate governance failure but "do nothing to make the corporate director's job any less impossible." Only a "total rethinking of how boards function, how they are rewarded, and what we really want them to do will prevent the next corporate scandal."

Ward will be speaking in the U.S. and overseas during 2003 in support of Saving the Corporate Board.

Sample chapters include:
[] The Data Disaster - Boards receive too little, too much, or just plain wrong information.
[] The Boardroom Leadership Gap - The board oversees (yet is also led by) the CEO.
[] The Boardroom Amateurs Syndrome - Inadequate time, resources and expertise for the job.
[] Financials, Frauds and Fumbles - Why "Audit Committee" is an oxymoron.
[] "Does Anyone Know Why We're Here?" - Poor board meetings and logistics.
[] We Don't Talk About That - Boards do a lousy job of handling their personal issues.

Saving The Corporate Board will be published in April 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, New York. Price: $34.95, 230 pages. ISBN: 0471-433837. For more information, please visit the Ralph Ward website at www.boardroominsider.com.

Ralph D. Ward is an international business speaker, consultant, and publisher of Boardroom INSIDER, the online newsletter for better boards and better directors (http://www.boardroominsider.com). He is also author of the new book Saving The Corporate Board, as well as Improving Corporate Boards, The Boardroom INSIDER Guidebook, and 21st Century Corporate Board. For more information, contact (989) 833-7615.