Skip to main content

独立董事,不应该只是企业的“警察”

独立董事,不应该只是企业的“警察”

独立董事的工作是什么?

  • 监督管理层?
  • 控制风险?
  • 确保合规?
  • 在危险的时候说“不”?

这些都对。

但如果独立董事只会说“不”,那只发挥了一半的价值。

在最近的新加坡董事协会(SID)董事大会上,吉宝主席、前星展集团CEO Piyush Gupta提出一个让我非常认同的观点:

董事会不能只是“警察”。

董事会还必须参与企业的战略、方向,并创造长期股东价值。

这正好呼应我一直坚持的一个理念:

企业治理,就是让企业跑得更快的“刹车”。

想象一辆法拉利。强大的引擎让它跑得快。但是,如果没有可靠的刹车,你敢开到时速200公里吗?当然不敢。

所以:

好的刹车,不是让车跑得更慢。
而是让你更有信心加速。

企业也是一样。

管理层是引擎,负责推动业务、寻找机会、创造增长。

而好的独立董事,不应该坐在旁边一直喊:

“不要!”, “太危险了!”, “不能做!”

真正有价值的独立董事,应该帮助管理层回答三个问题:

  • 会有什么问题?
  • 我们有没有看不到的东西?
  • 这项决定能不能创造长期、可持续的价值?

Piyush Gupta还分享了一个很有意思的星展银行案例。一些董事曾表示,他们不知道银行在中东业务上的一些损失。

其实,相关资料已经呈交董事会。问题不是没有资料。而是资料太多,重要的信息被埋没了。

这让我想到一个非常重要的董事会原则:

真正的问题,不是我们有没有资料,而是我们有没有看见真正重要的东西。

这正是独立董事能够创造价值的地方。不是只看报告。不是只打勾合规。

而是:

看见别人没有看见的风险。
连接别人没有连接起来的点。
挑战大家习以为常的假设。

所以,我认为一个好的独立董事,必须知道什么时候说:

停 STOP——风险太大,必须停。

缓慢 SLOW DOWN——有些假设,还需要验证。

更重要的是,也要知道什么时候说:

冲 GO——风险已经看清楚,让我们前进。

独立董事不是企业的另一个“警察”。更不是管理层的“橡皮图章”。

他应该是另一双有经验的眼睛,看见管理层可能看不见的东西。

因为真正好的企业治理,不是阻止企业前进。

而是给企业更好的“刹车”,让它跑得更快、更稳、更远。

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years.  Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself?  At least I have better discipline".  It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...