 legal person in question. According to the incorporation laws and the Civil Code of Québec, the board of directors is responsible for the management of the legal person or, as the case may be, for the supervision of the management performed by the persons to whom they have delegated their powers, namely the legal person’s management team.
attentively monitoring the implementation of the decisions made and making the appropriate adjustments as things evolve.
On this subject, please note that the business corporations acts specify that directors are considered to have complied with their duty of care if their decisions rely in good faith on the reports of a person whose profession lends credibility to his statements.
specifying, however, that if the interests of the various stakeholders cannot be reconciled with the best interests of the legal person, the long-term best interests of such legal person viewed as an ongoing concern must prevail.
prioritize measures that have the best chance of enabling a substantial part of the legal person’s business to survive and restart the majority of its operations once the situation returns to normal3.
We believe that in the current circumstances, it would be consistent with best practices for directors to consider the interests of stakeholders. This involves identifying those interests and evaluating them reasonably and fairly, as well as evaluating whether they can be reconciled with the legal person’s best interests.
It is clear that the current situation does not easily allow for reconciling, at least in the short term, the interests of all of stakeholders with the interests the legal person, which must prevail. Maintaining the conditions and relationships that existed before the crisis will be, in most cases, difficult to reconcile with the long-term best interests of the legal person, as defined and interpreted by the law and the courts. Directors therefore must arbitrate between these interests in a reasonable way, prioritizing the interests of the legal person, even if it is difficult to do so.
This crisis, the government directives and their effects require leadership and creativity on the part of directors. As has been written by several observers, the current crisis will necessitate new approaches when the pandemic is over. In this endeavour, directors must be proactive and must help management find solutions to limit the negative effects of the crisis and plan on potential new ways for the carrying out of the legal person’s operations in the coming years.
See subsection 122 (1.1) of the Canada Business Corporations Act, RSC 1985, c C-44.
A very apropos article on the way directors can fulfill their duties of diligence and loyalty was posted on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance on March 29, 2020: GREGORY, Holly J., GRAPSAS, Rebecca and HOLLAND, Claire, Ten Considerations for Boards of Directors, Cambridge, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, online: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/03/29/ten-considerations-for-boards-of-directors/.Loved for its youthful exuberance, while being a nod to legendary mid-engine sports cars of years gone by, when it launched in 1996 the Boxster changed the face of the Porsche brand. With the limited-production Boxster 25 Years, the successful sports-car concept celebrates a milestone. Former head of development Horst Marchart looks back.
By the late 1980s, everyone at Porsche knew it: something had to be done. The economic situation was tense. When it was launched in 1996, the Porsche Boxster model line was something of a liberation. The agile roadster, with the first water-cooled, six-cylinder series boxer engine mounted in front of the rear axle, conquered the hearts of a new and younger clientele in record time. One of the key people involved in its creation, during a time of major restructuring, was Horst Marchart. At the time, he headed the Complete Vehicle Development Department.
986 generation: model years 1997–2005. The resemblance to the study presented three and a half years earlier is unmistakable when the Boxster 986 goes into series production in August 1996. Technically, the Boxster is particularly impressive because of its new high-tech boxer engine.
986 generation: model years 1997–2005. A total of 164,874 examples of the first Boxster generation – the 986 – were built.
986 generation: 50 years of the 550 Spyder special edition (2004). In 2004 – the final model year of the first generation – the 50 Years of the 550 Spyder special edition is launched, limited to 1,953 examples.
986 generation: 50 years of the 550 Spyder special edition (2004). The Boxster S special edition evokes its kinship to the 550 Spyder. Its body lines and timeless elegance are reminiscent of the first thoroughbred Porsche racing car.
987 generation: model years 2005–2011. With the launch of the second generation in 2005, the design language of the roadster was refined. The goal: an even more dynamic appearance.
987 generation: model years 2005–2011. Over the years, the technology is fine-tuned again and again. For example, the engine output of the 987 generation Boxster increases to 188 kW (255 hp) by the end of the production period in 2011 and to 228 kW (310 hp) for the Boxster S.
987 generation: Boxster RS 60 Spyder special edition (2007). With another exclusive special series of the Boxster S, Porsche commemorates Hans Herrmann and Olivier Gendebien’s historic triumph at the 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida, in 1960. The Boxster RS 60 Spyder makes its debut in March 2008, shortly after Herrmann's 80th birthday.
987 generation: Boxster Spyder special edition (2010). The Boxster Spyder becomes known as Porsche's lightest road-legal sports car when it is presented in 2009. It weighs 80 kilograms less than the Boxster S and produces more than 10 PS more power.
981 generation: model years 2011–2016. The transition to the third generation brings extensive changes. Not only has the lightweight body of the Boxster been completely overhauled, but the chassis too. Despite increased driving performance, the new Boxster is up to 15 per cent more economical.
981 generation: model years 2011–2016. The design has been changed from the ground up, too. The Boxster of the 981 generation impresses with a flatter silhouette and more striking contours. The new concept offers more space for the vehicle occupants.
981 generation: Boxster Spyder special edition (2015). A classic driving experience and sporty performance: the 2015 Boxster Spyder special edition is available with a manual gearbox only. The powerful Boxster sprints from zero to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds.
982 generation: model years 2016–today. Twenty years after the first Boxster’s debut, Porsche is relaunching the roadster: the new model generation is called the 718 and is a nod to the 718 mid-engine sports cars from the 1950s and 1960s. The centrepiece is the newly developed four-cylinder boxer engine with turbocharging.
982 generation: model years 2016–today. The Boxster 982 exterior breaks new ground as well. The vehicle has been completely reworked, with the exception of the boot lid, windscreen and soft top.
Central figure: Horst Marchart in 1993 with Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (left) and Helmuth Bott (right), who served as the Porsche Board Member for Research and Development in Weissach until 1988.
The technical and strategic challenge lay in developing the new sports car in a way that would be in technological lockstep with future generations of the 911. And the car had to share a kinship with the legendary Spyder models. The plans for an exquisite two-seater roadster with a mid-engine convinced the Executive Board. The new car was to be called the Boxster – a nod to the open roadster and the six-cylinder boxer engines emblematic of the brand. It had already been decided that the boxer in the 996 generation of the 911 would be water-cooled. The Boxster would beat it to the punch.
Grant Larson created the first study. His design explicitly drew on the Porsche 550 Spyder of the 1950s and the Porsche 718 RS 60 Spyder from 1960. Noteworthy references included the mid-engine concept, a front extended well beyond the front axle, short body overhang in the rear, and a centred tailpipe. Striking air intakes and air outlet openings were important design features. The silver paint job and the red colour of the finely crafted interior paid tribute to Porsche history, yet now were also harbingers of a reinvigorated future.
Marchart, named Board Member for Research and Development in the autumn of 1991, had no doubt that this new model would be a great success alongside the new generation of the 911, without endangering the brand icon: “It was clear to me that the 993 was so good that it would complete its planned model cycle through 1998 with aplomb even with competition from the Boxster. And after the overwhelming public response to the Boxster study at the presentation in Detroit in January 1993, we were absolutely sure that we had made the right decision.” After the tumult of the show died down, the message was clear: shut down the design development and build the concept just like that.
Indeed, when the series model was launched in August 1996, the similarities with the Detroit showstopper were unmistakable. Sharing a front end with the 996 generation of the 911, which made its debut the following