Governance and ComplianceEffective Board Report Writing
A board paper competes with a dozen others for perhaps twenty minutes of a director's reading time, and most are written as though the board will read every page. This course is built on the assumption that it will not. Delegates work through the executive summary as the part that has to carry the decision on its own, the pyramid principle as a way of ordering an argument so the recommendation arrives before the evidence supporting it, and the editing habits that take a paper from four pages to two without weakening the case. Attention goes to the judgement of what belongs in the paper and what belongs in an appendix, and to the failures that send a paper back for redrafting: the one that reports activity instead of asking for a decision, the one that leaves a material risk sitting in the fourth paragraph, and the one that never makes clear what management is actually recommending. Delegates bring a paper they are currently preparing and leave having rewritten its summary and its structure.
Course objectives
- Write an executive summary that carries the decision on its own
- Order an argument so the recommendation arrives before its support
- Judge what belongs in the paper and what belongs in an appendix
- Cut a paper's length without weakening the case it makes
- Put a material risk where the board will see it
- Ask for a decision explicitly rather than reporting activity
- Rewrite a paper of your own and test it against the framework
Who should attend
- Company secretaries
- Finance directors and preparers of board financial information
- Senior managers writing business cases and board papers
- Corporate communications professionals
- Investor relations officers
Course outline
- 01What a board actually reads, and in what order
- 02The executive summary that carries the decision
- 03The pyramid principle applied to a board paper
- 04Recommendation first, supporting evidence after
- 05What belongs in the paper and what belongs in an appendix
- 06A clear and concise writing style, and the habits behind it
- 07Activity reporting, buried risk and the missing ask
- 08Rewriting your own paper, with feedback
Scheduled sessions
| Dates | Venue | Format | Price | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 October 2026 | Lusaka, Zambia | Classroom | USD 795 per delegate | Register Now |
| 27 November 2026 | Online | Online | R6,500 per delegate | Register Now |
| 4 January 2027 | Mbabane, Eswatini | Classroom | R11,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 17 March 2027 | Maseru, Lesotho | Classroom | R11,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 30 March 2027 | Windhoek, Namibia | Classroom | R11,950 per delegate | Register Now |