In May and June of 2006, The Financial Reporting Council surveyed the Chairmen of FTSE 100 companies to glean their views of the impact of the Combined Code and other governance matters.
On the whole, the Chairmen were supportive of the Code, having found it to be manageable via the 'comply or explain' provision. Fears that the Code would undermine the unitary Board and its necessary focus on strategy were unrealised. But they did feel a number of things were under appreciated, such as the central role of the Chairman and their companies' efforts in communicating with investors. They further felt 'input factors' such as Board attendance or formalisation of Board processes were not necessarily good indicators of governance and their use implied a lack of understanding of how a Board really works.
This difficult task has been recognised and appreciated by the Founders of Armstrong Bonham Carter who as a result have created the Armstrong Bonham Carter Board Performance Review. This is a flexible service designed to help Chairmen to understand how their Board is working and how to maximise its effectiveness. It also signals clearly that the Chairman and the members of the Board are making every effort to create value for shareholders.
Armstrong Bonham Carter (ABC) has built a team of independent Advisers who are proven business leaders. As such they have the right experience and record of creating value for shareholders and thus the ability to manage the review processes and deliver a robust, objective and comprehensive review. Furthermore the capabilities of the ABC Advisers will ensure that the issues preventing the Board from maximising its effectiveness are properly identified and will also provide advice on how to resolve those issues. Details of the Advisers and those who make up ABC can be found at Who are ABC.
ABC can ensure that a truly comprehensive review of the Board is obtained.
The review consists of:
  | A self-evaluation of the performance of the Board by the members of the Board managed by an Adviser. |
| A review of the performance of the Board by members of the company's staff such as senior management, the company's secretary and other employees. |
| A survey on the performance of the Board by external stakeholders, such as investors, regulators if pertinent, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, and even significant clients or suppliers. |
| Reviews of each of the Board committees (at least Nomination, Remuneration, and Audit). |
| Performance evaluations of Individual Directors on a 360-degree basis. |
| Assessments of the effectiveness of the Board's 'Tools', such as the company secretary, legal support, PR advisers, and internal audit. |
However ABC is also happy to carry out specified and limited reviews if so requested by the client.
