In February we highlighted a McKinsey article on the need for corporate boards to adapt their thinking to new economic conditions.  There was a survey that went along with that article, and now the McKinsey Quarterly is publishing some of the results.  And the findings are not very promising:

Today, boards are probably underreacting to the stresses—and opportunities—of economic turmoil. Directors themselves seem to agree: a McKinsey survey conducted in conjunction with an article published earlier this year¹ showed that only half of the 186 directors responding thought their boards had met the demands of the crisis. Just 30 percent reported that a wider range of information was now presented at board meetings or that conversations were more frank than usual (exhibit). Even among directors who believed that their boards had responded effectively, overall, to the crisis, only 19 percent felt that those boards had really addressed the problems of talent management—meaning not only the composition of the board but also its role in hiring and remunerating senior executives.

Read Using the crisis to create better boards here.