Board of Directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names for the same body include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees and board of visitors. It may also be called the executive board, and it is often simply referred to as “the board.”

Boards matter most to the large clothing and footwear companies that have them, and this guide treats the subject with a smile. The portraits on this page present the classic boardroom roster - the boss, the chairman, the chief executive, the president and the vice president - with a wink rather than as a formal corporate listing, because here the confident and trendy fashionista is always in charge.

Why Fashion Companies Have Boards

Although the fashion industry is fragmented, most successful companies have one primary purpose that sits above all others: the goal is to keep the “buyer” happy. Regardless of selling a product or a service, the supplier must keep their customer happy. While doing so, the company must proceed with all business activities in an ethical way. This is why many of the large clothing or footwear companies may have a board of directors.

A board gives that purpose oversight. A single owner or executive can run a small company directly, but a large clothing or footwear company answers to shareholders, lenders, employees and customers at the same time. A board sits above the day-to-day management to watch the company's direction, its money and its conduct, so that keeping the buyer happy never comes at the cost of running the business badly.

What Board Members Do

Board members are typically the fiduciaries who steer a fashion company towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, as well as by making sure the company has adequate resources to advance its mission. Fiduciary is the key word: a director is trusted to act in the company's interest, not in a personal one.

The classic roster shown in this page's portraits divides that work by role. The chairman leads the board itself. The chief executive runs the company day to day and answers to the board. The president and vice president are senior officers who carry parts of the operation. And above them all, in this guide's telling, sits the boss - because the confident and trendy fashionista is always in charge.

Standing Committees of the Board

A board may have various standing committees. Examples include the Audit and Finance Committee, the Compensation and Organization Committee, the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Nominating and Board Governance Committee.

Committees let a board divide detailed work among smaller groups of its members. Audit and finance watches the books and the reporting behind them; compensation and organization handles how senior people are paid and structured; corporate social responsibility looks at the company's wider impact; the executive committee can act between full board meetings; and nominating and board governance finds new directors and keeps the board's own rules in order.

Communicating With the Board

The Apparel Search Board of Directors believes it is important for interested parties to be able to communicate with the Board and its individual members. The standing joke on this subject directs anyone who wishes to write to the board to address the letter to the North Pole, from where word will supposedly be passed to whichever director the writer wishes to reach.

The honest note underneath the joke: at this time, there is only one member of the board - and, strictly speaking, the company does not actually have one. The invitation to join the board arrives with its answer already attached: sorry, there is no board to join. The single member is described here, tongue firmly in cheek, as rude, obnoxious and without friends - a joke at the boss's own expense. Readers who want the substance instead can head back to the fashion industry guide to learn more about clothing, shoes, accessories and textiles.

Two Forms of Intelligence

The Apparel Search website utilizes two forms of AI. It utilizes Artificial Intelligence as well as Alien Intelligence.

One of those is a genuine tool of modern publishing. The other is this page's idea of a joke. Readers are free to decide for themselves which is which on any given day - the board, such as it is, declines to rule on the question.

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