Better Boards was founded by Dr. Sabine Dembkowski. Dr. Sabine Dembkowski worked as an academician, strategy consultant and executive coach with boards, CEOs and Executive Committees. She initiated a large-scale research project into board effectiveness and worked with academicians, investors and members of boards to create a new approach to conducting Board Evaluations. Today the results of her research are peer-reviewed and published in the US, the UK and across Europe. The results also formed the foundation of an innovative online tool.

She has seen again and again how the top echelons of an organisation can waste energy which should have been used to create value for the share- and stakeholders. Better Boards is founded on the experience and conviction that providing the right amount of relevant feedback and support to top-level management can help to unleash the potential of an organisation and convert this into creating greater value for all share- and stakeholders.

The rapid pace of change and increasing regulatory complexity present challenges for organisations. Management often responds by ensuring that boxes are ticked and regulatory commitments are met. However, this comes at a price. Effective and best practice in management is often overlooked. Key ingredients to success such as individual and collective strengths, the right composition of teams, corporate vision, values, collaboration, and communication are not properly developed and leveraged.

Suddenly, the board is reduced to being the mere sum of its parts. It becomes a fragmented and disjointed body as opposed to a cohesive and powerful whole. The unique strengths of individual board members are squandered. Uncertainty about functions and responsibilities undermines collaboration, causes conflict and blocks the flow of information and ideas. Only a board in which all individual members understand how to bring out the best from one another can create optimal value.

And that’s where Better Boards steps in. Our goal is to develop managers, committees, and boards to ensure that they go beyond their regulatory obligations and bring out the best in their organisations. Leadership can increase its efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term performance – so that active governance creates value rather than undermines it.

Better Boards has developed an original, innovative approach to cope with the specific, complex demands board-level executives face. Our approach draws on our partners’ extensive, hands-on experience and their detailed knowledge, research and understanding of value creation in organisations.

Evidence-Based

The Better Boards approach is based on international research into board effectiveness. We draw on academic research and tried and tested methods that have proven to be successful. The research which forms the foundation of our work is peer-reviewed and published in the US, the UK and across Europe.

Multi-Perspective

Better Boards incorporates the perspectives of academicians, investors, directors, executive and governing boards to create new, wide-ranging insights for clients. Our process is holistic. We examine the way in which individuals operate as well as the way in which the board works as a whole. We address how individuals can become more impactful and how the collective board can become more effective.

Efficient and Practical

Better Boards does not engage in lengthy consultancy programmes. We target concrete results based on our research, practical experience and extensive knowledge of best practice.

We use online tools to complete our analysis more effectively. We focus on relevance, applicability, speed, and performance.

Better Boards has set a new standard in developing the effectiveness of boards and Executive Committees.