A survey undertaken by Sirdar Group has found that boards with at least one independent director are outperforming boards without one and that independent directors seem to be essential to keeping a good balance of power among the board.
Sirdar earlier this year launched in-depth survey-based research, collecting crucial data from board members of privately-held and family businesses across Africa for analysis.
The analysis was aimed at providing a high-level understanding for privately-held and family companies, shareholder-managers and nonexecutives directors on three subjects, namely the fees payable to the nonexecutive and independent directors of privately-held and family companies across Africa; the diversity of board structures of such African companies; and the perceived performance of these boards.
The survey results show that the level and structure of fees for nonexecutive directors are principally driven by enterprise size, that there are huge differences in director fees, that turnover is the main driver of directors’ fees, followed by employee numbers.
Lastly, the survey found that the spread of fees decreases as turnover increases.