PARTICIPANTS

Discutem sobre a venda de móveis impressão para Loja de Departamentos para equilibrar o negócio de impressão. [SI Synergy]

Meeting 26:

PoB: Inicia falando sobre o progresso da compra dos móveis impressão pelas Loja de Departamentos nos primeiros meses do ano. Comparando os dois primeiros meses, o resultado é positivo, considerando que as Lojas de Departamentos estão comprando mais produtos da indústria de BG A. [SI Synergy]

specific board members), by the entire board minus its chairman (only in the segment dedicated to the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting) and, in a few cases, individual interventions by unidentified board members or participants. The latter was not considered significant for data coding purposes.

The frequency of directors' interventions seems to reflect their power, direct interests, training, and position held. The directors that hold power in the group (PoB and VPoB) dominate the discussions, among internal directors. Junior internal directors contribute little.

The influence of direct interests, training, and position occupied can be evidenced by the participation of several of the board members: IND2, with a “wide experience in strategic business orientation”, intervenes in several SIs, but participates especially in issues of a strategic nature. IND1, who holds “wide experience in management and focused on financial advice” deals mainly with finance and control issues. PoB intervenes on practically all issues, but especially on those involving the group's industrial BUs, under his direct management.

VPoB intervenes in a similar way to PoB but especially in matters of trade, his area of responsibility. The few interventions by ID4 are practically all related to the real estate business, under his management.

The directors' participation also seems to reflect expectations for the roles they occupy, and for the relationship between these roles. Expectations for the role of independent directors, for example, seem to directly influence the intensity of their intervention in board discussions and the nature of these interventions, generally oriented towards questioning decisions and actions of internal directors, or towards recommendations and suggestions. Cognitive and behavioral aspects, however, seem to combine with the role of directors, leading to a greater or lesser frequency of their interventions and on the level of criticism they manifest to the actions and decisions of owner-managers who also are members of the board. IND1, for example, consistently intervenes less frequently and vehemently than IND2, despite the importance attached to the former's participation, as an expert in financial matters, in discussions on the causes and possible responses to SIs that arise from the moment the financial results begin to point to problems that may jeopardize the sustainability of the group's business. On many occasions, however, both independent directors intervene when discussions on a SI takes place, reinforcing and complementing each other’s interventions. The excerpts below, from different meetings, exemplify the influence of the expected role structure in the interventions of independent directors.

Meeting 1:

PoB: Acha importante BG A ter iniciado o Conselho Consultivo e acredita que o Conselho e os Conselheiros Externos vão poder contribuir muito para a empresa.

...

ID2: Sai da reunião satisfeito com as colocações dos Conselheiros Externos.

Meeting 2:

IND2: Gostou da reunião, sendo que um dos papéis dos conselheiros externos é exatamente questionar as ações, provocando discussões visando que os próprios diretores encontrem as soluções.

Meeting 15:

CC: continua discutindo como a situação econômica e política do país poderá afetar a empresa.

IND1: atenta para o problema de crédito que será enfrentado pelo mercado neste e no próximo ano.

IND2: reforça que o importante é analisar os riscos.

IND1: observa que os grandes fornecedores podem mudar o negócio, ou seja, a Apple pode assim que quiser cortar relações e resolver abrir lojas próprias tirando este faturamento do grupo. Alerta para a gestão destes riscos.

...

IND2: diz que não se está dizendo para não fazer os investimentos, mas os riscos devem ser geridos e considerados para garantir o futuro da empresa. Explica novamente o conceito de gestão de riscos.

...

IND1: observa que comércio e indústria são uma empresa só, não podendo ser olhadas em separado, assim a gestão de riscos deve ser feita em conjunto.

...

FBCon [family business consultant, who participate in a few of the meetings]: Coloca suas percepções sobre a dinâmica do conselho consultivo. Atenta que os conselheiros internos devem ouvir um pouco mais.

...

CC: Discute o papel dos conselheiros externos e internos.

In addition to the examples of positive influence mentioned above, the minutes reveal a lower intensity than would be expected in some interventions, resulting from the roles played and areas of influence of board members in the organization. For example, in discussions about the business strategies of the trade division, there are proportionately few PoB interventions, even though his role as chairman of the group indicated that matters relating to that division would also be his ultimate responsibility. At the same time, VPoB intervenes little in discussions regarding SIs directly related to the industry division, possibly less than would be expected from an executive of his seniority and power within the organization. There seems to be an implicit agreement between them that one should not interfere in matters related to the responsibility of the other. As a result, discussions on the strategies of these two divisions record a much higher proportion of interventions involving IND2, as a specialist in matters related to strategy, and PoB, in the case of the industry division, and of IND2 and VPoB, in the case of the trade division.