Board Solutions

Well-run boards add significant value and contribute to the long-term success of organizations.

The increasingly complex market environment demands more active and effective boards. Investors, regulators, the media, and society expect boards to deliver commercial success and at the same time establish and maintain strong corporate governance.

Board responsibilities are expanding beyond their traditional roles. In addition to conventional financial oversight, risk management, and executive committee supervision, boards today must deal with issues such as complex strategic alternatives, compliance, cybersecurity, shareholder activism, innovation and transformation, business disruptions, and diversity and inclusion. In addition, boards are expected to serve as a thought partner for the CEO and actively drive succession planning for the board and the CEO. 

For more than 50 years, Odgers Berndtson has been a trusted adviser to organisations looking to build and enhance their boards. We help our clients improve board effectiveness and performance through our integrated solutions:

• Board Assessment – We conduct an independent, professionally guided analysis of the board's purpose, governance, composition, dynamics, and leadership roles. We then benchmark our findings against best practices and identify areas for improvement. The result is that the board can perform to its maximum potential and thus live up to the expectations of investors and other stakeholders.
• Board Search & Succession – We clearly define the compelling mix of experiences, competencies, and profiles of the board members and factor in the organisation's specific objectives and challenges. Armed with these learnings, we implement an independent professional board search process to find the best chair or director for the board.
• Board Consulting – We provide diverse solutions to improve the board’s effectiveness in the areas of corporate governance, compensation, talent assessment and development, and others. 
• Advisory Boards – We help build advisory boards from scratch. We begin this exercise by defining their purpose, governance, composition, and dynamics. We then benchmark our findings against best practices and search for the best candidates to ensure that the advisory board delivers on the strategic expectations of owners, CEOs, or executive teams. 

Our local and global board consulting teams advise boards of various organizations, including global companies, leading national companies, joint ventures, and Private Equity and Venture Capital operating companies, and family- or founder-owned businesses. We bring to our clients:

• a strong track record across sectors and ownership structures, including some of the most successful companies in the world, 
• An independent, experienced board advisory team that is engaged in helping organizations with board composition, succession planning, development, and talent search,
• partner-led searches and advice on all board appointments and consulting projects,
• a global network and international benchmarks, because we operate in teams across borders, drawing on our international offices in 32 countries, and
• world-class methodologies with proven frameworks and processes based on more than 50 years of experience and research.

If you want to know more about the Effectiveness of the Boards of Directors in Portugal, consult our Board Effectiveness Study 2023