Key Elements of a Governance Structure in a Family Business: The Board of Directors

Abstract

In Chapter 3 we indicated that boards typically hold a central position in the corporate governance arena. They indeed represent one of the key elements in a corporate constitution. This is true for family-controlled enterprises as well as for publicly held companies. Because of this pivotal significance, it is necessary to discuss in some depth their specific role, their composition, their working style and the particular problems they may face in family businesses.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

(Ben Jonson, English dramatist and poet, 1572–1637)