BRENDAN WOOD’S TOPGUN^SM CLUB BOARDS…. WHY THEY WIN?

March 20^th 2017

Source: Shareholder Confidence Index, Pre-Proxy Polling Reports, 1400 Public Corporations, Global. Copyright Brendan Wood International
*Further performance information on 1400 companies available through Brendan Wood International.
See disclaimer below.

Why They Win? Anatomy of TopGun^SM Club Boards

• The members are individual winners. There is no substitute for drive and determination, hard work and experience. Not every board member is necessarily a proven tiger at strategic value creation, but it is important that the members want to be no less. Board team members of TopGun^SM Boards are not only expert specialists; they are on a steep learning curve aimed at playing a role in leading a business. TopGun^SM Club Boards include members who have run businesses and created wealth. They are idea people, who breed success.

• TopGun^SM Boards have a voracious appetite for achievement as a team. Their first reaction to accolades is to share them with the Board and management. They want to work with achievers, whatever the skill set.

• TopGun^SM Boards know their shareholders and listen carefully to them as if they were owners, because they are. They are visible and available to their owners and are responsive.

• TopGun^SM Boards believe in the company and own the stock. They believe in ownership and remain focused on the interests of the owners, partly because they are owners themselves and partly because they owe a service and keep that promise.  While counter intuitive to some in the field, it is no mystery as to why so many family companies actually outperform the norm. They have a lot of shares and pride in the boardroom.

• TopGun^SM Boards are made up of people who do not need the job.

• TopGun^SM Boards are teams of tough people who make decisions.

• TopGun^SM Boards insist on TopGun^SM CEO’s and are not afraid to switch out senior management when that is the right thing to do. TopGun^SM Boards know the business and the strategy. They are ready to challenge the environment, and have the drive and the acumen to do so.

• TopGun^SM Boards have succession plans in place. Their companies employ deep management expertise. They want the best in management and they make sure the company does.

• Crises are inevitable in any large company. TopGun^SM Boards calm things down and tackle tough problems aggressively and wisely. Whatever it is, they have seen it before, know what to do and how to do it. Again, some were chosen precisely for this reason.

• TopGun^SM Boards are singled out by Brendan Wood’s shareholder panel performance ratings as well as by the reported strength of the intended shareholder vote to retain them. Many lower-rated boards are re-elected year over year despite their low ratings. Most boards are simply unknown to investors despite their power and duties to the investors who elected them. It takes an energetic and determined campaign to unseat and replace an ineffective board. To do so, investors would need to unite, find new board members willing to participate in a conflict and have a good investment reason for going to all that trouble. In other words, absent an activist intrusion, most ineffective boards are held over by tolerance for another year at a time. By contrast, TopGun^SM Boards are in high demand because they breed TopGun^SM management and strategy.

• “Seldom do shareholders identify a TopGun^SM Board, absent an accompanying TopGun^SM CEO and world-class business strategy. The much overused “governance” mission is claimed as a raison d’être by well-meaning Boards and a veritable army of academics and consultants who traffic in the relevance of rituals. By contrast, TopGun^SM Club Boards are consistently focused on driving their businesses to full competitive potential. Until BWI ratings came into effect, Boards did not have an independent performance report card. One invisible Board was perceived to be largely the same as another. However, that is now found to be wholly untrue, since BWI ratings animated the voice of shareholders amplifying their appreciation of shining performance and their frustrations with Boards bent on polishing resumes and exercising political correctness. Governance has become a verbal substitute for performance. Regulation has its place, but shareholders reasonably draw the line at relevance.”

• “Institutional and retail investment advisors are responsible for the savings of the common investor and their families, in which duty they select companies whose mission is to deliver shareholder value. In their heart of hearts most boards would like to compete for performance targets and hit benchmarks of excellence, but many are unsure of how to do so in the current environment. We trust that the study of true excellence will provide moral support and thoughtful instruction as to what can be achieved by a board member and board teams. The first step for many is to know your shareholders and study hard on the business”, says Brendan Wood.

• “The TopGun^SM Boards of the world provide a great service to shareholders. They are due recognition for running companies that replenish faith in the markets. Brendan Wood partners are pleased at the opportunity to amplify the approval of their shareholders whose primary interest is value creation”, said Mr Wood.

About Brendan Wood International:

Established in 1970, Brendan Wood International is a global advisor basing its strategic and operational advice on granular intelligence which measures current and forthcoming transactional market share and confidence in the performance of all sizes of public companies, banks, broker dealers and investment managers worldwide. The firm is also the managing sponsor of the exclusive TopGun^SM Club, which recognizes and supports individual executive and professional members whose ‘game changer’ performance is rated in the top decile globally by their constituent counter parties, shareholders and customers.

Related Links:

www.TopGunPress.com
www.brendanwood.com

For further information on the Brendan Wood 1400 Index companies:

Jordan Novak
Managing Director
Brendan Wood International
+1 416 924 8110
jnovak@brendanwood.com

Amanda Knott
Manager – BWI Panel
Brendan Wood International
+1 416 924 8110
aknott@brendanwood.com​

Disclaimer:

This report contains confidential information which is the exclusive property of Brendan Wood International. Such information shall not be copied, excerpted, disclosed to others, or used for any purpose other than that for which it is expressly given, without the prior written permission of Brendan Wood International.

We wish to emphasize that all reports, evaluations and assessments contained herein, represent Brendan Wood International’s subjective judgment and opinions, based on our years of experience and on information obtained by us in the course of our research. Much of the factual information contained in the reports has been obtained by us from third parties on whose responses we have relied in good faith, independent verification by Brendan Wood International being, under the circumstances, impossible. While we believe that you will find our reports to be an invaluable tool in formulating your own strategies and judgments, the foregoing should be borne in mind. Under no circumstances should any ratings or evaluations of individuals’ performances in these reports be considered as a sufficient basis for making decisions concerning the careers of individuals, including such matters as promotions, compensation arrangements, terminations, etc.

This report is not meant as investment advice and should not be interpreted as advising on the value of a company’s securities, the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling any company’s securities or any other conclusion relating to investment/divestiture of a company’s securities. Finally, this report is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any of company’s securities.

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