As Enron and Parmalat demonstrate, bad corporate governance knows no frontiers.

Ideas differ widely as to what constitutes acceptable Corporate Governance. The entrepreneur may desire complete freedom (“Well the investor entrusts his money to me and I give it back in five years, so I don’t need to see him until then”), while providers of capital will have other expectations (“We require strict limits on major disbursements, monthly strategy meetings and two board seats”). There is fertile ground for misunderstandings and even discord. Add to all this contrasting business mentalities (”Anglo Saxon”, Continental European and Asian models), throw in linguistic and cultural differences and the result is an indigestible cocktail of chaos and confusion.

Osprey Partners have encountered all these issues in the course of years of dealings with clients and counterparts from New York and London to Chisinau (Republic of Moldova) and Vladivostok. Based on repeated requests from clients to “explain it from both sides” and “be neutral and mediate some tricky areas”, we decided to systematize and share this experience in the form of:

	Board Strategy Meeting Leadership and Moderation;
	Board Representation;
	Dispute analysis and resolution;
	Corporate Governance workshops;
	Board Coaching.

Clients find that having an external (neutral) moderator at strategy meetings is more conducive to the free flow of ideas and opinions.

We can represent shareholders in a personal capacity and use our considerable experience and understanding of the issues to reassure the shareholder.

In dispute analysis we listen to both sides and then analyse the reasons behind the differing opinions, providing insight to each party as to the frame of reference the other is working from. Having established, and having the parties acknowledge, the reasons for the disagreement, we can then help them in structuring a solution without the interference of emotions.

As a company grows so too does the complexity of issues a Board faces. We can act as an external expert, able to guide all Board Members through new or technically complex subjects, such as a share capital increase and its impact on valuation, shareholder dilution, options and pre-emption rights. We can also examine the Board structure itself to ensure that it continues to serve its purpose in an evolving environment.