Leadership and Governance From the Inside Out

This book is not a structured treatise, but rather a compilation of a score of varied contributions around the topic of corporate governance. Next to recognized names in management literature (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Manfred Kets de Vries, etc.), are contributors such as Sherron Watkins, the employee who blew the whistle on the fraudulent accounting practices going on at Enron, a lawyer specialized in white-collar crime, as well as the acting Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission.
With the exception of succinct chapter 18 devoted to governance in Europe, the book remains very U.S.-centric, and is highly influenced by the post-Enron climate and the American obsession with embezzlement. Readers are advised to go first to the passages relative to the fight against the law of silence concerning unethical practices (chapter 1), CEO selection criteria (chapter 9, including an interesting list of external signs of bad governance), the relationship between the CEO and the board (chapter 10) and executive compensation (chapter 16). For a summary of the principles underlined in the book, read the article written by Arthur Levitt (chapter 21), former SEC chairman, who offers an interesting perspective on U.S. corporate governance practices since the eighties.