Headhunting firm Odgers, Ray & Berndtson has launched The Directors’ Toolkit, a practical handbook for chairmen and non-executive directors, five years on from the publication of the revised Combined Code on Corporate Governance.

The Directors’ Toolkit explains the roles of chairman, chief executive and senior independent director (SID), and addresses issues such as leadership succession and wider themes such as diversity and the mix of skills on boards. The volume also includes the complete text of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance.

One particular recommendation of the Higgs Review, the creation of a SID, is now widely accepted as a valuable element of corporate governance. The chapter on the SID in the Directors’ Toolkit discusses the role and contains unpublished survey data carried out by Odgers Ray & Berndtson involving FTSE 100 chairmen, CEOs and company secretaries.

“The corporate landscape has changed since the Higgs Review of 2003,” said Richard Boggis-Rolfe, chairman and chief executive of Odgers. “Non-executive directors are increasingly integral to key corporate governance decisions, as recent events have shown: there have been notable instances in the banking sector. Underlying the whole Toolkit is the assumption that for sustained corporate robustness, in good times and bad, the critical factor is quality of leadership on the board. Our essays combine the most recent thinking with years of professional insight, and direct, personal board experience.”