Higgs report sustains another blow
The more non-executive directors on a company's board, the poorer its performance, according to a study from the Henley Management Centre.
Link: FTSE-100 chairmen unhappy with Higgs
The results challenge the need for one of the Higgs Report’s central measures – that at least half the members on a company board should be independent, non exectives.
Reported in the Financial Times today the report also calims that the greater the number of ‘executives’ on a board, the better its performance.
The study will form another blow to the recommendations in the Higgs Report which has recently come under withering criticism from sections of the business community.
Such has been the level of criticism that even government ministers have felt the need to publicly support it while Derek Higgs himself has also been drawn into publicly defending his work.
The report was commissioned in response to the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom and was published together with the Smith Report which looked at the role of company audit committees.