The Company Director's Role and Liabilities

There are no future dates for this course at present. However you can still take the course by receiving all the modules together and working through them in your own time, and at your own pace. For more details please contact us.

Course overview

Why you should choose ‘The Company Director’s Role and Liabilities’ distance learning course?

As a company director, you’re in the firing line.

Your personal exposure is growing all the time. The maze of legislation is getting denser with the implementation of the Companies Act 2006 and incurring penalties is a real possibility. There are now over 200 offences under company law, which can lead to company directors being fined – in serious cases a custodial sentence can result. It’s the shareholders’ liability, which is limited, not the directors’.

Finding the time to stay properly up-to-speed must sometimes seem impossible. However, there is a sensible way to get-to-grips with what you need to know without making life intolerable.
Falconbury have designed this course to give you expert, practical guidance on the duties, rights and obligations of this important role – all in just six modules.

What this distance learning course offers you:

1 FLEXIBILITY – learning at a pace and place of your own choosing
2 WELL-DESIGNED programme focused on practical relevance
3 MANAGEABLE weekly instalments and self-aid progress questions
4 NO NEED for time away from the office
5 REDUCED expenditure – no hotel or travel fees
6 ENJOY the flexibility of studying at work, home or on the move
7 ACCESS to professional advisors and authors of the course

This course will benefit you if:

• You are a company director in any sort of organisation, small, medium or large
• Or are part of the senior legal, accounting and administration support staff
• Need to know what the law means and what you need to do
• Want to minimise your risk of non-compliance with the law

Course modules

MODULE 1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES

• Personal Liability
• Companies Act 2006 implementation schedule
• Defining the nature of Directors and their role
• Defining the term
• How did we get here?
• What is a company
• Appointment
• Appraisal
• Joining the throng
• What is a Director?
• A Director’s exposure
• Aims and purpose
• Rolling out the message
• The variety of types of Directors and their responsibilities
• A director is a director
• Courtesy titles
• Director’s expectations
• Appointment and status
• Eligibility for appointment
• Appointment of a Director
• Notification of interests
• Status – officer or officer and employee?
• The service contract
• The twin relationship

MODULE 2 BOARD MEETINGS – MAKING THEM EFFECTIVE

• Procedures for effective board meetings
• Determining the aims of board meetings
• Dynamic agendas
• Timetable and aims
• Interested parties
• The effective meeting
• The chairman and secretary
• Key players
• General responsibilities of the Chairman
• Progressing the meeting
• Controlling the members
• Motivating members
• The role of the Company Secretary
• Before and at board meetings
• Preparation for and administration of board meetings
• Preparing effective reports
• Planning
• Appointing subcommittees
• Minutes – example and usage
• Board meeting minutes

MODULE 3 AUDITORS, AGM’S AND SHAREHOLDERS

• Access, authorities and auditors
• General requirements to create and protect records
• Controlling exercise of authority
• Theft’s vicious circle
• Director’s loans
• Enhanced penalties
• Shareholders’ meetings
• The Annual General Meeting
• Briefing the Chairman
• Minutes
• Extraordinary General Meetings
• Resolutions
• Aspects of the PLC requirements
• Corporate registration
• Public flotation and the implications
• Application for Stock Exchange listing
• Notification of major interests
• Corporate governance
• Payment of directors
• Shareholder communication
• The Annual Report
• Determining the target audiences
• Filing the document and range of content
• A timetable for action
• The Chairman’s statement
• Corporate social responsibility
• Human Capital Management

MODULE 4 LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

• Leadership and management
• Maximising the human resource
• Communication principles
• Briefings
• Directing now
• The combined code
• Corporate governance – a checklist for boards
• Good Governance Code
• Corporate governance in the 21st century
• Relationships
• Working time/personal time balance
• A sting in the tail?
• The public image
• Who do we serve?
• Devising and using media releases
• Media interviews
• Communication aspects of crisis reaction

MODULE 5 CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY – TRAPS AND PITFALLS

• Liabilities and protections
• Our litigious society
• Personal liability for statements
• Safety obligations
• Employment obligations
• Commercial requirements
• The Enterprise Act 2002
• The Insolvency Act
• Operating in – and saving – the environment
• The requirement to take risk
• Contingency planning
• Risk prevention planning
• Contingency plan
• Credit risk
• Safety
• Stress
• Risk transference
• Behaviour and approach
• Confidentiality undertaking
• Non-competition clauses
• Electronic transmissions
• Controlling other risks
• Insider dealing rules
• Share trading

MODULE 6 EMPLOYMENT OPTIONS – FINDING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE MAZE

• Employment considerations
• The 4 key employment ‘abilities’ for the 21st century
• Pro-active recruitment
• The ‘family friendly’ regime
• Public duties
• Avoiding age discrimination
• The challenge of retirement – post October 2006
• Comparability and consultation
• Part-time employees
• Fixed term contract personnel
• Temporary personnel
• Homeworking
• Transferring employees
• Consultability
• Retention ability

Course contributor

David Martin FCIS, FCIPD, FioD as a Director & Secretary of one of the top 250 listed PLC’s for nearly 10 years David was responsible for a range of disciplines – including personnel, property and insurance as well as statutory and legal requirements and corporate/internal communications (three of his annual reports won national awards). Following a takeover, he founded his own business consultancy – Buddenbrook – which this year celebrates 20 years in business. Buddenbrook Consultancy has carried out various projects for a range of clients, large and small. David is an employer’s representative for the panel of members for the Employment Tribunals and a member of one of the Registrar of Companies committees. He is a regular seminar/conference speaker and is author of around 40 books including two international best sellers Tough Talking and Manipulating Meetings. He is a series editor for the institute of Chartered Secretaries One Stop (OS) series.

Client portfolio

Our client portfolio for this course includes the following companies:

More information

The following documents are available for this course:

• Sample module [128kb]

Academy of Distance Learning in Business

ADLiB

The Academy for Distance Learning in Business (ADLiB¹) has developed out of Falconbury’s pioneering work on short-course management and professional development.

As with the face-to-face training we do in our public and in-house programmes, our focus is on the practical and application-rich skills and techniques, which will enable individuals to develop their full potential as managers and professionals.

Our approach to distance learning is to use the self-study method at its best to make sure that you can flexibly acquire the knowledge and understanding of each chosen area in a way that suits you and your current work commitments.

ADLiB was set up to give a consistent approach across different subject areas, so that its users would know that our rigorous standards of excellence would be met in each course.

Every programme and each of the component modules is a combination of the training and learning expertise of Falconbury and input from its wide range of practically skilled writers and trainers. Where a course bears the ADLiB logo, you can be sure that our (and your) exacting standards will be met.

To learn more about how ADLiB and the courses can help you and/or your business call +44 (0)20 7729 6677

¹ ADLiB is the Academy for Distance Learning in Business and offers ‘best in class’, flexible self-study in key business, management and leadership via distance learning modules delivered directly to you, to work through at your convenience.

Ad lib is from the Latin ad libitum meaning ‘at one’s pleasure’ – we aim to make management and professional development enjoyable as well as worthwhile.

Ad lib could also be a loose latin short-form of ‘to the library’ – but in our case, we save you that trouble by using the best material available to us on each topic and assembled to give you maximum benefit.

International Association of Distance Learning

The International Association for Distance Learning (IADL) promotes excellence in open, distance, and online learning worldwide, and provides a benchmark through which global consumers can gauge the quality of courses offered by their members.

The IADL is an independent, non-profit organisation with its principal administrative offices in London in the United Kingdom. Find out more.

Falconbury are an Approved Member of the International Association for Distance Learning. Please see our IADL membership certificate