What do boards do? is an oft-asked question and who better to answer than the board members! Role of Boards - Building Sustainable Competitive Edge published by SAGE re-examines the roles played by Indian boards, with the hypothesis that boards of directors are not doing enough to develop sustainable and competitive organisations.
"In India, this important topic has been shrouded in mystery and deserves to be demystified, especially since boards are positioned at the apex of companies and can potentially play a critical role in the life of an organisation," says Asha Bhandarkar who co-authored the book with the renowned management guru, late Pritam Singh, and author and HR professional Subir Verma.
The initiative for this work came from Pritam Singh who had the experience of working on 20 corporate boards over the last 30 years. "The entire research took about five years. I must confess that it was not an easy exercise- COVID-19 was in full form in India just when we were writing the findings of the book. We used to have WhatsApp meetings every evening to align with one another’s thought processes so that the flow of the book was not affected. All three of us divided the work and every evening we used to update each other on our progress and insights," says Asha, a distinguished professor at IMI Delhi.
On the process of writing Role of Boards, Asha says the research took a behavioural approach (including board composition, group dynamics as well as group process) rather than a legal or financial one which is more typical when studying corporate governance. In this book, the role Indian boards play in building organisations with a sustainable competitive edge has been empirically examined. "The book has gathered views and experiences of board members through questionnaires and interviews on many behavioural aspects of boardroom functioning," says Asha.
Forward moves
"The work is unique because it examines boardroom functioning from the lens of organisational performance. It examines how organisations can continuously move to the next orbit to out-compete rivals and increase their own longevity," adds Asha.
Born In Hyderabad and a Osmania University graduate, Asha is a psychologist, a management professor and a well-known name in the field of Leadership and HR as a scholar, consultant, and researcher. Prior to her current assignment at IMI-Delhi, she was the Raman Munjal Chair Professor of Leadership Studies as well as Dean, Research and Consulting at MDI-Gurgaon.
She has published nine books and more than 40 research papers and cases in peer-reviewed national and international journals and edited books. Many of her publications have been co-authored with Pritam Singh who passed away on June 3, 2020.
