This post is essentially Lucy P Marcus' (founder and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, who also serves as an independent director in number of boards) opinion about the role and importance of boards in troubled times.
There are some essential things boards and board members need to think about, no matter the size, location or sector of the organization. They are infrastructure, technology, internationalization, communication, and the balance of continuity and change. There is a need to achieve balance between grounding and strategizing. 1) Infrastructure
Is the organization addressing issues around energy consumption, including integrating clean tech and sustainability? Is it covering infrastructure and from all angles--from facilities to building stock and rolling stock and the risks they may be exposed to, from changing work patterns and practices to the ways in which companies engage with their stakeholders and the local communities where they are based?
Is the organization addressing issues around energy consumption, including integrating clean tech and sustainability? Is it covering infrastructure and from all angles--from facilities to building stock and rolling stock and the risks they may be exposed to, from changing work patterns and practices to the ways in which companies engage with their stakeholders and the local communities where they are based?
2) Technology
Is the organization flexible enough to recognize important technological developments and incorporate them into existing business models? Does it recognize places where technology and technological innovation may be fundamentally changing the way their organization is run in the future?
Is the organization flexible enough to recognize important technological developments and incorporate them into existing business models? Does it recognize places where technology and technological innovation may be fundamentally changing the way their organization is run in the future?
3) Internationalization
No matter what a company's main business is or where it is located, its success will ultimately depend on grasping the internationalized environment in which it operates. The world today is politically, socially, and economically more inter-connected, and this offers opportunities and poses risks at the same time. Is the company focused on attracting the best people from anywhere and put them in a place where they work most productively for the success of the company as a whole?
No matter what a company's main business is or where it is located, its success will ultimately depend on grasping the internationalized environment in which it operates. The world today is politically, socially, and economically more inter-connected, and this offers opportunities and poses risks at the same time. Is the company focused on attracting the best people from anywhere and put them in a place where they work most productively for the success of the company as a whole?
4) Communication
Is the company effective and dynamic in its communications, both with all its stakeholders (customers, staff, investors, etc.) and with the board room? Companies that send out a message of a forward-looking, socially and environmentally responsible, and politically aware strategy and do it by old and new forms of communication also send a message about the right balance between continuity and change, about the unity of word and deed, demonstrating in action to which it rhetorically commits.
Is the company effective and dynamic in its communications, both with all its stakeholders (customers, staff, investors, etc.) and with the board room? Companies that send out a message of a forward-looking, socially and environmentally responsible, and politically aware strategy and do it by old and new forms of communication also send a message about the right balance between continuity and change, about the unity of word and deed, demonstrating in action to which it rhetorically commits.
5) Balancing Continuity and Change
Boards will only succeed in their task of future proofing their organizations if they see the connections between the old and the new. Is the board embracing new ideas and new ways of thinking while at the same time not ignoring or disregarding the old? Is the company being driven by short-lived 'flavors of the month' or temptations of every disruptive technology or idea that comes into the room, rather than being guided by the needs and vision of the business?
Boards will only succeed in their task of future proofing their organizations if they see the connections between the old and the new. Is the board embracing new ideas and new ways of thinking while at the same time not ignoring or disregarding the old? Is the company being driven by short-lived 'flavors of the month' or temptations of every disruptive technology or idea that comes into the room, rather than being guided by the needs and vision of the business?
Organizations of all kinds, be they public or private, profit or not for profit, educational institution or Fortune 500, will need the best from their boards and from their director. By leading through example, boards will help organizations face the sense of instability with aplomb, and emerge stronger, more self-assured, resilient and capable.
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