Board performance

Ensuring that Board dynamics remain effective following recent membership changes, including the appointment of the new Chief Executive

• Effective working relationships have been developed and maintained between the non-executive Directors and the Executive Directors, facilitated by opportunities offered by offsite Board meetings and less formal discussions at Board dinners ahead of meetings.

Continuing the focus on strategic decision making in light of the evolving regulatory environment

• The Board has continued to receive regular updates on the regulatory environment. Strategy presentations to the Board have included additional information on the external environment and its impact. External guest speakers have presented to the Board on significant issues, such as the valuation of banks.

• Succession planning is a major focus of the Board and the Board Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee considers diversity on the Board when discussing succession plans and potential new appointments.

Revising the format of Board meetings to allow the Board to devote more time  to discussion of key strategic issues, including discussions the evening before Board meetings

• Board dinners are being held on evenings prior to Board meetings to enable Directors to discuss issues in more depth and build relationships. The Board dinners have included presentations and time for discussion of key issues. Routine Board items are being dealt with appropriately, including inverting the agenda, if appropriate, so that routine items are considered last

As in each year since 2004, the 2011 evaluation process was independently facilitated. We continue to monitor and review the facilitators available in the market and Egon Zehnder International was re-engaged following such review. Egon Zehnder is an executive search agent, but it did not undertake any Barclays Board searches during the year and the Board continues to believe that it provides an impartial and objective service.
 

The 2011 evaluation process again took the form of questionnaires completed by Directors and key executives, followed by structured interviews with representatives from Egon Zehnder. In addition to the Board evaluation questionnaire completed by all the participants, Board Committee members completed separate Board Committee questionnaires. The areas covered by the questionnaire were unchanged from previous years, although this year the questionnaire included some new questions designed to draw out behavioural issues and group dynamics.

In December 2011, Egon Zehnder presented a report on the evaluation process to the Board. We discussed the results of the evaluation and confirmed that we continue to operate at a very high level of effectiveness. The review identified that the Board is aligned in its understanding of the strategic challenges it faces in a highly regulated and uncertain economic environment; that it continues to work hard and effectively as a team; and that it has demonstrated a high degree of resilience over a significant period of uncertainty for the financial services industry. The review also concluded that the Board benchmarked well against other companies.

The key themes arising from the 2011 evaluation and which will form the basis of the action plan for 2012 are:

• Ensuring that the Board continues to have an appropriate range and balance of skills, experience and diversity.
• Continuing to develop an appropriate process for succession planning for key Board and senior executive management positions.
• Enabling the Board to have greater interaction with Executive Committee members to gain an enhanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities they face in their businesses.
• Ensuring that the Board has visibility of talent amongst senior executive management.
• Continuing to ensure that timely and high-quality information flows to the Board and to Board Committees. 

As part of the annual evaluation process, we seek views on the performance of individual Directors. I have discussed this feedback with each of the non-executive Directors and agreed with them any areas for development. My own performance was reviewed by the Senior Independent Director, who sought the views of the other non-executive Directors