Secret Ned: Time for the governance code to find its direction

A new corporate governance code is all well and good, but will it be an improvement on the last? Only if it asks the right questions, argues Board Agenda’s Secret Ned.

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HO HO HO! A belated Happy New Year. And what did Santa Claus bring you last Christmas? Oh, how wonderful, a new corporate governance code? You must have been so excited. Did you sit down and read it straight away? Or is it on your too-difficult pile, together with the last revision and the one before that?
Experienced non-executives will know that the revision process is likely to take some time and only the most diehard will contribute. I have to admit, it has not even hit the discussion agenda of my boards, let alone prompt any of my chairs to circulate a draft response.
What is the code for? Until we can answer that question,
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