Based on Company Directors’ Corporate Governance Framework™, the GAT considers governance from the perspective of individual directors, the functions of the board, the execution of governance in the business and the relationships held with the organisation’s stakeholders. Board members are asked to assess their organisation’s governance against a series of review statements that go to the heart of the area to be examined. Statements are assessed on a maturity rating scale and are supported by Guidance notes describing the area under review, how it is applied and what directors should be observing as leading practice, offering an education element to the review process where this may be of benefit. Our most popular diagnostic, the GAT is our primary tool for benchmarking governance against both standards of practice and to market.

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This has been influenced by various factors including:

• a growing sophistication in the practice of directorship
• good governance pronouncements (eg the ASX Corporate Governance Council recommendations and guidance)
• an increase in external stakeholder expectations.

Boards need to be confident that, at any point in time, they have an appropriate and defensible set of arrangements in place. Our Board Review focuses on the key drivers of board effectiveness and is comprised of a set of statements similar in nature to a traditional board review. AICD has selected approximately 60 review statements that it considers are important in terms of a board’s effectiveness. The areas this tool covers include effective use of board meetings; the board and the CEO; board culture and dynamics, board meetings, information provided to the board; board/management relations; and the effectiveness of board committees.

Click here for a demo of the Board Review.

Having the right composition of skills, experience and attributes on the board relative to the organisation and its operating context is perhaps one of the most significant factors in driving superior performance. Our Skills and Capabilities diagnostic tool focuses the board’s attention on the composition of the board and the extent to which it is optimised to add value. The tool aids the board in assessing which of the necessary capabilities it has identified for itself are most important, and where gaps currently exist or are likely to arise. Such capabilities might include, for example, relevant functional knowledge, breadth of expertise and perspectives, an appreciation of impacting technologies and/or previous experience driving financial performance. The tool also explores the extent to which board members exhibit desired behavioural traits such as being open-minded and active listeners.

While the Chair is often described as being the “first among equals”, all board members have equal standing and as such, director performance reviews usually take the form of peer-to-peer assessments. Our peer-to-peer review allows boards to adopt a structured approach to director reviews. Our peer-to-peer tool enables directors to assess both themselves and other board members on a core set of attributes that AICD considers indicate the extent to which directors are contributing to board effectiveness.

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We work with the Board to diagnose issues, understand root causes, engage key stakeholders in solution options, offer practical models and methods for improvement and partner throughout implementation. Specifically our process involves:

1. Investigate: Review of governance arrangements and performance to leading practice
2. Diagnose: Assessment of governance to standards of best practice and to market
3. Engage: Quantitative and qualitative input to enable insight into underlying performance factors
4. Blueprint: Critical analysis, prioritisation of issues and recommendations, production of draft report and facilitated Board discussion
5. Implement: Finalisation of report and recommendations and execution of implementation plan