The ideals of an effective board are not found in the regulations. The effective board is one that emphasises performance rather than just conformance. It focuses on values as well as value. And it should strongly support as well as challenge management.
Like most Commonwealth countries, Singapore has a one-tier governance structure that puts executive and non-executive directors together on a single board. In contrast, countries like Germany separate the two types of directors. Some nonprofit organisations in Singapore have found the two-tier model useful.
Corporate governance is crucial, but a core difficulty is the corruption of power. The ensuing rules to safeguard against wrongdoings have focused too many boards on compliance and not enough on their performance role of value creation.
