• Demonstration of knowledge of the issues

• High quality written communication of corporate governance concepts

• Structure and professional presentation of the report

Required:

Assume you are employed in a management consulting firm and have expertise as a corporate governance specialist. Your client is a public company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange that has requested a one page brief (maximum 250 words) specifying the essential criteria for a non-executive director to be appointed to the company’s board.

The client has said; ‘Make it brief, I’m too busy to read a long document. You should follow the ideas of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill who stated:

‘To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points. I ask my colleagues and their staff to see to it that their reports are shorter. The aim should be reports which set out the main points in a series of short, crisp paragraphs…’

Winston Churchill, Memo to UK War Cabinet, 9 August 1940, During the Battle of Britain.