Pre-Order Waterstones
Pre-Order Amazon

Behind Closed Doors

‘The Boardroom: How to get in, get on and make a difference’

From his 30 years of serving on boards, Simon Laffin provides a guide on how to get appointed to a board, and what to do, and what to look out for, when you. He covers a wide range of board issues from what financial numbers to look out for, the understanding risk and cash-flow, decision-making, mergers and acquisitions, how to work with colleagues, even to how to handle sexual misdemeanours in the boardroom. He also tackles controversial subjects, such as diversity and excess regulation. The book is full of tips and techniques to help even experienced directors make a difference. Simon argues that what boards need is education and encouragement, to get a better understanding of board issues. He explains that boards do not need more invasive regulation. He wants to open the doors to the boardroom so that insiders understand better what is happening and what they need to do, and outsiders get a clearer view of what happens inside the boardroom.

Buy The Book - Amazon!

New Course Now Available

Read the book do the course

Learn more about the course

New course now available

Read the book, do the course!”

Notes From A Non-Executive

Topics covered range from what to look at when you are thinking of joining a board, to handling difficult issues that arise, to what to expect if your company gets bid for.

Risks & The Boardroom

This is a plea for boards to take corporate risk registers seriously and suggests ways to enable boards to think about risks in a constructive way.

Corporate Governance

A blog on recent corporate governance changes, lesson that can be learned from failures such as Carillion and Northern Rock, and issues around the audit industry.

Economics

Articles looking at various aspects of economics

Recent Blogs

A. Your first NED interview

A. Your first NED interview

by

I’ve sat through many NED interviews, on both sides of the table, learning a lot about how they work and how to conduct them. I have not yet discovered the secret to identifying the ideal NED director nor to getting selected myself every time. Here are a few notes,...

Your first 100 days as an NED

Your first 100 days as an NED

by

Induction Programme You should have some form of induction programme. However, rather than leave it to the Company Secretary, it will be a better and more comprehensive one if you take control of it. Unless you’ve already met them in your induction programme, you...

Brydon’s curate’s egg

Brydon’s curate’s egg

by

Right Reverend Host: “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad Egg, Mr Jones!” The Curate: “Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!”   A ‘curate’s egg’ was originally something that is described as having good parts purely out of politeness, but nowadays, is...