Comex/Codir evaluation: a powerful lever available to all companies

By Blandine Cordier-Palasse, Revue RH&M

In France, regular assessment of the Board of Directors is compulsory for all listed companies, and assessment of the Executive Committee (Comex) or Management Committee (Codir) is recommended. We encourage all companies to take this step. Experience shows that it can only be beneficial to the company's governance, efficiency and performance. The benefits of evaluating your Codir in three questions.

What are the issues driving the assessment? 

Like a top-level sportsman or woman, an executive is constantly faced with challenges, competition and performance. And, like a top sportsman or woman, they need to be able to rely on teams to help them achieve their objectives - in this case, effective governance bodies. There are two of these: the Board of Directors for strategic direction and the Codir/Comex for operational management. It is vital that each of these teams is strong, cohesive, well-informed, shares a common vision of the company and is as efficient as the great sportsman or woman it supports in serving the success of the executive in his or her mission. 

Undertaking an assessment of the Codir will enable you to take stock of the situation and, depending on its conclusions and your objectives, define a strategy to bring the current situation into line with the desired situation.

What are the objectives of the Codir evaluation? 

The full evaluation covers the analysis of three fundamental themes:

- Firstly, the skills and expertise of each Codir member, particularly in relation to the company's business and strategy.

- Secondly, the soft skills and posture that will enable them to form a team with the same objective: to strengthen collective intelligence in the service of the company's development.

- Thirdly, the team's collective performance, its strategic alignment and the quality of its collaboration.

Firstly, the aim is to take stock of the years in office of the current Codir. It also involves taking stock of the impact of its position within the organisation and analysing the gaps with the strategy.

Then, looking at the past provides a better understanding of the present. This enables us to make tailor-made recommendations to adjust the management team to lead the company into the future.

Finally, on the basis of this diagnosis, the 2nd phase will be to define areas for improving the efficiency of both individuals and the collective operation. The aim will be to identify the skills and attitudes that are needed, but which may or may not be present in the current Codir. In order to propose an action plan to strengthen their contribution to the achievement of the company's strategy.

What are the risks of not carrying out an assessment? 

In our board assessment assignments, we find that, over and above the recommendations that result from our assessments, this is a rare opportunity to take a step back and reflect on the vision of the executive and the board of directors. 

If you don't carry out an assessment, you miss out on a diagnosis and its feedback. In reality, it's a privileged moment of dialogue for each member of the Executive Committee with experts in human strategy and the analysis of professional talent. It also means missing out on help with transformation. This can be difficult to implement using only internal resources, but more acceptable with the involvement of external experts, and complicated to manage without methods to overcome the usual resistance.

But change is inevitable if we are to stay in the race. Without evaluation, the risk is that the company will eventually slow down. Or even losing its market leadership. Implementing an assessment is therefore an investment in the company's performance and long-term future.

BLANDINE CORDIER-PALASSE

President of BCP PartnersWe are a people strategy consultancy specialising in recruitment for Finance, Legal, Risk & Compliance and Board positions, as well as advising executives on governance and Board and Executive Committee assessment.

Doctor of Law, Company Director. Co-founder of the Cercle De la Compliance, former General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors of listed companies.