Law Department Management Blog
A survey was conducted of UK and global companies that polled their general counsel and company secretaries. A detailed report of the survey’s findings involving board-level information can be found at:the Accelus website of ThomsonReuters.
One finding was that the average corporation surveyed prepares and disseminates nearly 6,000 pages of sensitive material to their board every year, with some companies producing more than 200 board packs per year.” If a Board has 10 members and meets five times a year, then 100 pages per meeting per member actually sounds modest.
A second finding concerned frequencies of how material is shared with board members:
Board books delivered physically by courier (61%)
Board members print electronic files and carry them (75%)
Documents sent to board members via personal, non-commercial email addresses (73%)
Always establish email accounts and use exclusively for board communications (10%)
The point being made is that sensitive corporate documents deserve more protection. “Despite international travel commitments and members working in multiple time-zones, less than 25 percent of the corporations surveyed use any form of board portal technology, such as BoardLink to deliver their documents and communicate with board members in a secure environment.” Law departments and corporate secretaries should investigate these kinds of tools.