Maybe Your First Layoffs Should Be Board Members

Large corporations with small boards (around nine to 10 directors) outperformed their peers on shareholder return by 8.5 percentage points, while firms with large boards (13 to 14) underperformed peers by 10.85 percentage points, says a study prepared for the Wall Street Journal. The analysis, by governance-research organization GMI Ratings, looked at 2011–2014 returns for nearly 400 companies with market cap of at least $10 billion. The reasons for the performance gap are unclear, but small boards may be more decisive, cohesive, and hands-on.