The Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) publishes a quarterly journal, the SID Directors Bulletin. The theme of the 2017 Q2 issue was “power”. As chairman of SID then, I thought it would be fun to create our very own superhero.

After some brainstorming, we decided to call him “SuperSID” and his superpower would be: the ability to answer all the problematic questions a director may ask about boards, corporate governance and directorships. We also gave him a Clark Kent-type secret identity, namely Mr Sid. Thus was born the agony aunt of SID.

For each issue, we would poll the Bulletin committee for ideas and create a case study. I usually ask one of the committee members, often Philip Forrest who has a dry wit, to draft the case question so that it would be in a different writing style from the reply that I would write. One advantage of a column like this is that I can change the question to suit the answer. And to answer a common query: No, the cases are all hypothetical, although many are drawn from real-life situations.

The column and character have been well-received – at least from my limited feedback. We went on to create a SuperSID costume (actually, only a T-shirt with a cape) which has been worn by various SID staff and board members to illustrate relevant concepts (such as diversity) and at SID events (the first being the launch of the Corporate Governance Guides).

If you are interested in corporate governance and directorship, I hope you enjoy reading Mr Sid’s ramblings as much we have enjoyed creating him.