Comment by chasd00

When you see significant risks to the org and its value, and they go completely unaddressed by management, the board is the final step before going to the public. It is the board’s duty to the public owners to make sure management isn’t driving the company into the ground.

It would be interesting to see this raised in the next shareholders meeting as a question of whether the board and exec team are actually competent and doing their work.

A man can dream anyway. When there is this much money on the line, sometimes people actually get held somewhat accountable.

It's a baffling flaw in human nature. The board should have cared about these issues, but in practice communications to and from the board are tightly controlled, and communications outside of those constraints are discarded.

This occurs whether or not it makes sense. Machiavelli actually warns about the specifically: if someone else controls access to you and communication with you, they have real leverage over you.

Not on day one. Imagine it took two years to get there.

“customary” referred to the path through the Secretary, as opposed to writing directly to members. Besides that, depending on the nature of the communication, if everything fails, you may need to be sure you talk to people who will unconditionally put the best interests of the company ahead of any other consideration. The Board is one such group. See what Boeing did with the report of the mechanic who saw flaws in the 737 MAX’s door plugs. Was that worthy of a letter to the CEO, then the Board if no reaction? Or just talk to your dismissive manager and let the planes crash? I made a judgment call, which I entirely own.