The Law of Requisite Variety applied to corporate governance issues

The Law of Requisite Variety (LRV) is generally accepted as the foundation of control systems design and maintenance, and has been argued to be capable to extension to management in general. If such an extension is valid and useful, then it should be capable of contributing significantly to helping resolve questions that occupy much time in the top boardrooms around the world. Two such issues are addressed within the LRV framework, namely 1non-executive directors as a check on the power of chief executives to abuse their position. 2- An analysis of the general nature of compliance and its costs. It is found that the LRV does have sufficient useful application in both areas to lend some support to its possible status as a basic law of management.