Corporate Meetings: Do they have any value to business? Part 3

In the last article, we covered a few aspects of meetings as a facilitator of the execution and implementation of strategy in the context of a cyclical four phase of directors steering the formulation of strategy by management, approval of the policy to further the e ect of the strategy. at further covered the last two phases of monitoring comparison between projected and actual corporate performance and accountability, disclosure and reporting to close and wider stakeholders. Prior to these iterated four phases, summarised the factors that illustrate iterated cycle from strategy through to the accountability, disclosure, and reporting.

Good day everyone; welcome to corporate governance! is week, we will be continuing with the aspects of the importance of meetings. We will be, mainly, discussing how the corporate Chair is the pillar of e ective meetings. In other words, the Chair can mend or break the organisation through his or her behavioural approach to meetings.

According to King IV Report Practice Notes ( 2017: 4), there are some aspects that articulate the role of the Chair in relation to meetings. Before discussing these factors, we will outline the four main procedures of preparation for meetings as follows, which is known the ‘ Meetings Four Cs Model’:

A meeting should be properly convened. What does this mean? Before sending a notice of the meeting, the convener which comprises: the Chair, Company Secretary and Chief Executive O cer should consider, the legitimate close stakeholders of the meeting, that is, members of the Board if it is corporate meeting, the venue of the meeting, time allowed for the notice of the meeting, preparation of the agenda, the invitees of the meeting who will join in attendance and consideration of other logistical factors.

Meeting should be properly constituted- At this stage, the main consideration before the start of the meeting is quorum of the legitimate members who should be attending the meeting excluding the invitees to the meeting and other part of the management who join the meeting in attendance. Everything that is part of the meeting should be arranged in an orderly manner. Proper conduct of the meeting- e execution of the entire meeting should be at the standard of orderly serenity of Westminster style. In other words, there should be cordial atmosphere of collegiality that reigns without intermittent undue heckling during the meeting. Admittedly, that does not silence the constructive assertiveness of members during the discussions.

Meetings should be properly concluded/ closedHaving concluded all the items scheduled for the meeting, the meeting comes to an end. ere are four types of ending the meeting: the rst type is whereby the Chair declares the meeting closed and informs the members about the date of the next meeting. e second type is when the meeting comes to an end, the Chair declares it closed but does not announce the date/ day of the next meeting; in this instance, the meeting is said to be adjourned sine die. In other words, the meeting is closed inde nitely. e third type of the meeting is when something occurs unexpectedly that causes closing of the meeting. e examples could be when there was a marginal quorum at the beginning of the meeting and one or two members decide to leave the meeting early which results in the meeting no longer being quorate.

To retain the legitimacy of the meeting the Chair will declare the adjournment of the meeting. Usually, the meeting is rescheduled to the following week same day, same time, and same venue. However, any reasonable day, time or venue may be decided by the remaining members of the Board. e fourth and last type of ending the meeting is when it ends unceremoniously due to escalating disputes or disagreement which no longer add value to the initial intentions of the meeting. Usually, the situation becomes such that the Chair completely loses control of the meeting and everything unfolds in a chaotic manner to the extent of everyone taking the leave without proper ending of the meeting. is ends in the loss of the legitimacy of the meeting and therefore the next meeting will be taking o from scratch. In one of my encounters as a Director and Company Secretary, chaos visited our Board.

One of directors who sat next of me started ring the Chair with a deluge of questions before the meeting even started which cause an escalating exchange of sour words. e Chair then lost his temper and le the meeting with the Board Secretary, and everyone followed him out of the boardroom. I then shouted to everyone I said come! My voice seemed to have emitted miraculous weight because they all came back. I then advised them that it was lawful to choose the Chair from our number and continue with the meeting. It then became so and the meeting got started.

In the next article, we will be starting the discussion with the aspects of the role of the Chair. As usual, we would like to thank our readership for its unwavering support to our articles and their constructive feedback.