Journals 2024
Journal 364
December 2024
‘This includes making ethical considerations part of key decision-making processes and ensuring that employees at all levels understand the importance of these values. But this is only truly effective if this messaging gets cascaded via its middle management, so "tone from the middle" becomes equally important.'
Ty Francis
‘Providing constructive challenge can be more difficult in some markets than others; for example, where most boards are dominated by representatives of controlling shareholders or where a lack of due deference is seen as socially unacceptable and speaking up discouraged.'
Chris Hodge
Journal 363
November 2024
‘The journey towards a boardroom that leverages the full potential of AI - where intelligent systems actively support decision-making and enhance governance processes - is one of exploration and adaptation. It requires boards to think critically about their governance objectives, remain open to the complexities introduced by technological advancements and embrace the profound changes that AI can usher in.’
Paul Stark
‘When non-execs realise that they are not alone with their doubts, but that other members also do not fully understand individual topics or have doubts about certain decisions, this usually leads to the topics in question being discussed openly for the first time in the board and the board developing a different self-image and self-confidence. This sets a process in motion that leads to a much more intensive dialogue within the board and between the non-execs and the management board/executive committee.’
Dr Florian Schilling
Journal 362
October 2024
Featured Articles:
- Optimising board decision-making
- What investors want to know
- Better board packs
‘One of these is the need during the decision-making process explicitly to consider alternative options, rather than simply debating the merits of a single recommendation. Where s decision-making process is more of a single discussion, it is important to ask management "what else did you consider before you reached this recommendation?"’
Elizabeth Mohr
‘In our decades of research, we've seen many formats and approaches to board reporting, and there is no prescriptive formula for getting it right. However, we have consistently observed three characteristics that all good board packs share: great communication, critical thinking and a focus on what matters.’
Megan Pantelides and Niamh Corbett
Journal 361
September 2024
‘As we enter an era of step-change transformation ushered in by the exciting promise of AI, it would serve us well to learn from our past failures and put culture front and centre on this journey. Not only to enable more successful transformation, and better return on investment, but to ensure that the technology serves a company's strategic objectives and its people, rather than the other way round.’
Annabel Gillard
‘Risk, performance and reward considerations in a business case process should explicitly address complexity and consider the extent to which it is creating or destroying value. There are many practical steps that organisations can take to identify both the level and type of complexity in the current business mode, as well as steps to reduce unwanted or bad complexity, whilst identifying ways in which competitive advantage and customer stickiness can even be improved by taking on good complexity.’
Carl Sjostrom and Hans-Kristian Bryn
Journal 360
August 2024
Featured Articles:
- Malus and clawback
- Inequality matters
- Conduct of directors
- Future charity chair
‘Good governance entails oversight of all material risks and opportunities pertinent to a corporation. It also entails meaningful engagement with the residual owners of the corporation, its stockholders. Inequality and its mitigation present material risks and opportunities for both firms and their investors. Directors should take guidance from current and upcoming research and craft oversight policy for inequality.’
Paul Rissman
‘But in this case, experience tells us that it’s all too easy for well-intentioned and wholly ethical boards and individual directors to be knocked off track by crosswinds. So to have a clear statement of essential behaviours to act as a compass and check is no bad thing.’
Richard Sheath
Journal 359
July 2024
Featured Articles:
- G is key
- Maximising mindset
- Risk, dissent and decision-making (part II)
'But in my opinion the governance piece is absolutely fundamental. G is key right? The governance of companies is fundamental to your investment case. It's fundamental to the information the market gets. And it is how you solve all the new and emerging issues as well as the big systemic issues of our time.’
Jen Sisson
‘So, when composing our boards and leadership teams and in thinking about diversity we need a healthy balance of risk appetites. Those who can inspire us to think big and those who can ensure that we maintain financial and operational control, as well as that rare earth material, those who can do both.’
Patrick Dunne
Journal 358
June 2024
Featured Articles:
- Virtual mic drops and the great AI debate
- Risk, dissent and decision-making
- The diversity mandate
'When seeking to discover more about stakeholders and avoid a fiery AGM, it’s important to draw the distinction between investors simply seeking more engagement and those with a genuine appetite for disruption. By setting a clear and robust code of conduct for their annual meeting, companies can draw a clear line between (over)enthusiasm and revolt.’
Peter Fowler
‘Therefore, having a diverse group of directors on the board is only half the battle; a culture that encourages the confident expression of differing views in the board dialogue is just as important. The Chair has a role to play in nurturing the inexperienced or quiet and encouraging them to voice their opinions.’
Chris Stamp
Journal 357
May 2024
‘Whilst it’s fine to disagree, the board’s job is to make decisions together and to reach a consensus. The most pivotal and trusted figure when it comes to reaching consensus is of course the Chair, whose effectiveness depends much on their emotional intelligence and understanding of the range of different personalities on the board.’
Andy Davies
‘From learning how to think critically as individuals, we then progress to exploring how we can create smart-thinking organisations, that harness our colleagues' diversity of thought, overcome groupthink, and embrace challenge.’
Alex Edmans
Journal 356
April 2024
Featured Articles:
- Embracing AI Governance
- New Internal Audit Code of Practice
- Navigating the ESG Reporting Landscape
‘Employees must act as AI’s stewards, understanding its risks and benefits, while senior leaders must adopt a holistic and multifaceted approach toconsider AI inventories, their use cases, and an assessment of their implications on all stakeholders.’
Arnaud Cave and Niamh O’Brien
‘A key area that is causing particular uncertainty the plethora of regulatory reporting requirements, which can leave multi-jurisdictional companies navigating conflicting requirements. The EU, UK and US have all made recent moves towards expanding scope ESG reporting.’
Matthew Rossi and Henrietta Worthington
Journal 355
March 2024
Featured Articles:
- Psychological safety in boardrooms
- What next for boards?
- Risk, reward and uncontrollables
‘Directors should be role models when it comes to psychological safety, and that means adopting the following kinds of practices, and being visible in doing so: asking for upward feedback; acknowledging mistakes; being open to opinions that are different from their own; being approachable and encouraging reports to ask questions; and being seen to bring more of themselves to work, rather than always wearing a “professional mask”.’
Arran Heal
‘Our planning and risk models need to perform in a world of ‘dis-order’ and incorporate a mind shift from looking at individual incidents or risks to multiple and linked risks which have longer term implications for strategic positioning and risk management.’
Hans-Kristian Bryn and Carl Sjostrom
Journal 354
February 2024
Featured Articles:
- Collective intelligence in the boardroom and beyond
- The impact of relationships on board effectiveness
- Preparing for activism at AGMs
‘So how do you build an organisation that’s fuelled by collective rather than individual intelligence? Our view, having studied this for the past 15 years, is that it boils down to building three capabilities at every level: critical thinking, great communication, and a shared focus on what matters most.’
Jennifer Sundberg and Megan Pantelides
‘Where the dialectic between executive directors and non-execs works well, the board’s decision-making will be well-considered, objective and balanced. Where it does not work well, the opposite is likely to be the result. How, then, do these two constituencies contribute to the board’s effective decision-making?’
Chris Stamp and Ian White
Journal 353
January 2024
Featured Articles:
- Joining forces for shareholder democracy
- The impact of board relationships
- Supply chain resilience
‘The reality is, hybrid meetings are essential for good governance. Companies can improve their relationships with stakeholders, enabling inclusivity before, during and after the live meeting. Investment platforms and registrars need to join forces with issuers to make this connection smoother.’
Peter Fowler
‘As a board balances the roles of Supervisor (holding management to account) and Steward (adding value by keeping an eye to the long-term) it requires that board directors challenge each other and have open and robust debate. This can be measurably improved by developing strengths in all four behaviours: Empathy, Seeking information, Critical thinking and Conceptual agility.’
Alison Gill and Alex Cameron
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