Each board review assignment we undertake is unique, reflecting each client’s individual strategic priorities and current governance challenges. However, the principles we apply to all board review assignments never change. These principles are aligned with those of the Chartered Governance Institute’s Code of Practice for Board Reviewers.

Principle 1 – competence and capacity

Our reviewers are drawn from our qualified team of Chartered Governance Professionals, each of whom possesses a wealth of direct governance experience gained over years of supporting and working with boards. The strength and depth of our team enables us to draw upon the most appropriate individuals to lead and support each client board review, in particular taking account of factors such as their particular expertise and capacity to devote sufficient time and attention to the exercise. In allocating team members to each review, our overriding consideration is ensuring we offer the best service to our clients so that the outcomes of their review are optimised.

Principle 2 – independence and integrity

Independence is so important to us, we incorporated it into the heart of our brand: Indigo Governance.

With all our client work, we are constantly vigilant for issues that could compromise our independence, integrity and unbiased output. Each client engagement is assessed on its own merits but we pay particular attention to scenarios that could compromise our independence, or perceived independence, such as the provision of additional services to a board review client or an extended period of engagement.

Principle 3 – client engagements

As a business, we are always client focussed, attentive and clear. This is particularly important for board reviews, where two-way transparency and honesty are so essential to creating a successful and meaningful outcome. It is essential that the terms of, and objectives for, each review are agreed upfront and that the client has faith in our approach, our respect for their confidentiality and our willingness to provide honest feedback. Our pre-engagement discussions are designed to tease out these issues and to ensure that we are the right adviser for the assignment.

Principle 4 – client disclosure

We are proud to be associated with the clients we work for and to have our work acknowledged through public disclosures. And we support full and frank disclosures of board reviews as providing important and useful information on the governance of organisations for investors and other stakeholders. But we are also mindful of the reliance that others may place on those disclosures and therefore require that clients undertake to provide us with opportunities to review any narrative they intend to publish on their board review process and its outcomes.

Case study – Independent board reviews

The board of a listed company was looking for an external provider for its annual board evaluation. They wanted someone who would bring an independent but knowledgeable perspective to the process.  The timescale and available options for the review were discussed in order to agree a process that best suited the board’s aspirations for the exercise and delivered a report to allow the board to discuss and agree its post-review action plan in good time before it needed to report to shareholders on the process in its annual report and accounts.

Having produced a bespoke report which highlighted those areas where any concerns had been raised indicating the need for more discussion,  the board’s consideration of the outcomes was independently facilitated by a member of the Indigo team . This was done in order to identify appropriate actions the board could take to further improve its effectiveness.