The role of modern corporate boards is the juxtaposition of grounding and stargazing. Grounding is about making sure that the company fulfills all o...

As 2010 came to a close, Edelman public relations released the results of a survey on the public attitudes toward American business. The results were pretty ugly.

Clearly, it looks odd these days for a board to be comprised of only white men, but does diversity make a difference in real economic terms? Does it actually affect the bottom line?

As a non-executive board director, I have been thinking a great deal about what it means to do this role in today's environment.

The governance operating system is based on an underlying assumption that employees act in their self-interest. This operating system worked perfectly fine for decades, until leaders began calling on employees for other things besides productivity.

This article was co-authored by Maria Umbach and Marc Stoiber of Maddock Douglas, a leading innovation agency based in Chicago. Thanks go to Michael J...