The purpose for performing a governance review is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of governance in the organization as perceived by the Board and Management. We sometimes also include key stakeholders in the process if the circumstances warrant. We achieve this by undertaking the following activities:

• Reviewing all pertinent documentation
• Developing and obtaining concurrence to a interview guide and/or governance survey
• Completing a survey of Board members and senior managers
• Completing an environmental scan of key stakeholders (optional)
• Performing confidential individual interviews with Board members, the CEO and senior managers, and selected stakeholders as appropriate
• Synthesizing the interview findings and analyzing these against leading practices
• Presenting our synthesis of findings (things done well and opportunities for improvement) and recommendations to the Board and the CEO

We develop our recommendations by drawing upon our extensive experience in working with diverse Boards and governing bodies as well as the leading practice intelligence contained in our unique and proprietary models. Our approach is to simplify seemingly complicated issues and present information in ways that facilitate comprehension and constructive discussion. We have found this is the best way to achieve consensus in those areas where the Board wants to improve.

The ultimate goal of the review / assessment process is to attain alignment among the members of the Board and Management on the key governance challenges the organization faces and to decide upon priorities for action.