The Business Performance Management Forum includes more than 175 executives who want to jointly develop a set of best practices to monitor corporate performance, comply with stricter laws on corporate governance, and handle basic accounting tasks. A poll conducted by the group found that 60 percent of board members are not satisfied with the accuracy of their company's financial forecasts.

"As the world moves at a faster pace, it's more important than ever for a CEO to know what has to be done to achieve performance," said Gil Amelio, former CEO of Apple Computer and a member of the BPM Forum's advisory board. "Even if Enron hadn't happened, it would have become clear that accountability was a big issue."

Despite new laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which Congress passed last year and requires CEOs to personally certify the accuracy of their financial statements, Amelio said best practices aren't always clear. So the forum will gather expertise from the dozens of companies participating.  

In its survey, the group found that 85 percent of board members say they're very concerned about the tools, processes and methodologies they will use to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. About 21 percent of respondents said their company has allocated funds to deal with the act, and only 41 percent say they expect immediate compliance. 

Amelio, who is a venture capitalist with Sienna Ventures, said he was surprised that companies haven't acted more quickly to allocate money for Sarbanes-Oxley.

Jeff Rodek, chairman and chief executive of Hyperion, a sponsor of BPM A Forum, said the surveyAshows that
boards -- eager to take a more active role -- think they receive too little information from management. 

"Sarbanes-Oxley has raised the level of concern, but it's also raised the level of anxiety by me as a board member to do a better job," said Rodek.  

Other advisory board members include Bill Campbell, chairman of Intuit; Susan Woodward, former chief
economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission; Ronald Lataille, vice president of finance at
Verizon Communications; and Paul Tiffany, lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of
Business and the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business.