H. Pierson

Digital transformation is increasingly essential for federal and state governments in Africa due to its potential to address key challenges and drive socio-economic development. Here are the primary reasons why it is critical:

1. Improved Service Delivery and Accessibility

Enhanced Public Services: Digital transformation allows governments to improve the quality, efficiency, and reach of public services, making them more accessible to citizens, even in remote areas. E-governance platforms enable citizens to access services like healthcare, education, tax filing, and social security benefits online.

Citizen-Centric Services: By digitizing services, governments can shift towards a more citizen-focused approach, reducing bureaucratic delays and eliminating inefficiencies in service delivery. Online portals and mobile applications offer round-the-clock access to services, cutting down on time and travel costs.

2. Increased Transparency and Accountability

Fighting Corruption: Digital systems reduce human intervention, decreasing opportunities for corruption. E-procurement, for example, can automate the bidding process, ensuring fairness and transparency in government contracts.

Real-Time Monitoring: Digital tools provide governments with real-time data on projects, budgets, and public services, increasing oversight and enabling better decision-making. It also allows citizens to track government initiatives, improving trust between the public and the state.

Economic Growth and Innovation

Stimulating the Digital Economy: A digital transformation strategy can help governments foster the growth of tech ecosystems and digital industries. This creates new jobs, attracts foreign investment, and opens up new economic opportunities, especially in sectors like fintech, e-commerce, and mobile communications.

Support for SMEs: Digital platforms help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gain access to markets, government contracts, and financial services, boosting local economies and reducing poverty.

4. Efficiency in Governance and Cost Reduction

Streamlining Government Operations: Digital systems can help governments reduce costs by automating routine tasks, improving workflow management, and minimizing paperwork. This is crucial for governments with limited budgets.

Resource Optimization: Digital technologies, such as cloud computing, data analytics, and AI, enable governments to optimize resource allocation, ensuring that scarce resources like healthcare, water, and electricity are efficiently distributed based on real-time demand.

5. Inclusion and Bridging the Digital Divide

Access to Underserved Communities: In many African countries, large portions of the population live in rural areas with limited access to government services. Digital platforms, powered by mobile technology, can bring essential services to these communities, helping to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas.

Empowering Marginalized Groups: Digital transformation can empower women, youth, and other marginalized groups by providing them access to education, employment, and financial services through digital platforms.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Enhanced Policy Making: Digital tools provide governments with valuable data and insights to improve policy design and implementation. With real-time data analytics, governments can make informed decisions, track progress, and adjust strategies based on measurable outcomes.

Disaster and Crisis Management: Digital technologies help governments respond more effectively to natural disasters, public health crises, and emergencies by using early warning systems, data collection tools, and communication platforms to coordinate efforts and allocate resources.

7. Building Resilience and Adaptability

Resilience to External Shocks: Digital transformation enhances government resilience in times of crisis. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many African governments that had invested in digital infrastructure were better able to transition to remote work, implement digital learning, and ensure continuous delivery of services.

Adaptability to Technological Change: As new technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to evolve, digital transformation positions African governments to adopt these innovations and integrate them into governance processes.

8. Boosting Public Participation and Engagement

increased Civic Engagement: Digital platforms, such as social media, mobile apps, and websites, allow citizens to engage with their governments more easily, participate in policy discussions, and provide feedback. This fosters a more open and participatory governance model.

Inclusive Policy Development: Governments can use digital tools to collect input from citizens, ensuring that policies reflect the needs of the population. Public consultations can be conducted online, making the process more inclusive and reaching a wider audience.

9. Enhancing National Security and Data Protection

Cybersecurity and Data Management: As governments digitize, they need to strengthen their cybersecurity infrastructure to protect sensitive data, prevent cyberattacks, and ensure the integrity of their systems. Digital transformation includes investing in secure, reliable digital infrastructure to safeguard national interests.

Cross-Border Cooperation: Digital transformation also enables better coordination with neighboring countries on issues like border security, regional trade, and combating transnational threats such as terrorism and trafficking.

10. Supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Accelerating SDG Progress: Many African governments are committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Digital transformation is a key enabler of this, particularly in areas like education (SDG 4), healthcare (SDG 3), economic growth (SDG 8), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10).

Environmental Sustainability: Digital tools can support sustainability efforts by improving environmental monitoring, energy efficiency, and natural resource management.

In conclusion, digital transformation is not just an option but a necessity for African federal and state governments. It enables more efficient governance, fosters economic growth, enhances public trust, and improves the quality of life for citizens across the continent.

Achieving culture change in public institutions can be challenging due to their size, hierarchical structures, and the complexity of their missions. However, with a thoughtful approach, it’s possible to shift behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets to create a more adaptive and dynamic organizational culture. Here are some of the best approaches:

Strong Leadership Commitment

Role Modeling: Leaders must demonstrate the desired cultural values in their daily actions and decision-making. Leadership commitment sets the tone for the entire organization.
Vision and Clarity: Leaders should clearly articulate why culture change is necessary, outlining a compelling vision that aligns with the institution’s mission and public service objectives.

Engage Employees at All Levels

Involve Employees in the Process: For culture change to stick, employees at all levels should feel involved in shaping the new culture. This can be achieved through workshops, focus groups, or participatory planning sessions.
Identify Change Champions: Empower individuals within the organization who naturally embrace the new cultural values to act as ambassadors, influencing others and spreading the desired behaviors.

Alignment of Policies and Incentives

Review Organizational Policies: Ensure that all institutional policies, performance metrics, and incentives are aligned with the desired cultural values. For example, if collaboration is a core value, performance reviews should reward teamwork rather than individual accomplishments.
Redesign Reward Systems: Public institutions should ensure that both formal and informal rewards (e.g., promotions, recognition, development opportunities) are designed to reinforce the desired cultural attributes.

Training and Capacity Building

Skill Development: Provide training that builds the necessary skills to support the culture change, such as leadership development, emotional intelligence, diversity training, and change management skills.
Continuous Learning: Create an environment where learning is encouraged, and employees are given the tools and resources to adapt to new ways of working.

Communication and Transparency

Clear, Consistent Communication: Communicate the vision for culture change consistently and transparently. Use multiple channels to ensure the message reaches all employees.
Two-Way Communication: Encourage feedback and open dialogue. Leaders should listen to employee concerns and ideas, making adjustments where necessary.

Focus on Small Wins and Gradual Progress

Pilot Projects: Start with small, manageable initiatives that can showcase the positive impacts of the cultural shift. Success in these areas builds momentum and demonstrates the feasibility of broader change.
Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and celebrate early successes and improvements to keep morale high and reinforce the message that change is possible.

Sustain the Change with Accountability Mechanisms

Tracking Progress: Establish clear metrics to track culture change efforts. These could include employee engagement surveys, customer satisfaction ratings, or internal collaboration levels.
Continuous Reinforcement: Embed the desired cultural behaviors into everyday processes, from recruitment to daily operations. Leaders should continually reinforce the values through their actions and the decisions they make.

Foster a Culture of Innovation and Adaptability

Encourage Risk-Taking: Shift from a culture of risk aversion (common in public institutions) to one that supports experimentation and innovation. Create safe spaces for trying new approaches without fear of negative repercussions.
Adapt and Evolve: Public institutions should be prepared to adapt the culture change plan based on what works and what doesn’t. Flexibility is essential as culture change is not a one-time event but an ongoing process.

By applying these approaches, public institutions can gradually shift their organizational culture to one that is more innovative, responsive, and aligned with modern governance challenges.

Strategy activation in public organizations is crucial for turning strategic goals into actionable initiatives that deliver measurable outcomes. Here are five important things to know about it:

Alignment with Public Policy and Regulations
Public organizations operate within a framework of laws, regulations, and policies. Strategy activation must align with governmental priorities, legislative mandates, and public sector values. This ensures that initiatives not only meet organizational goals but also contribute to broader societal objectives.
Stakeholder Engagement is Key
Public organizations often serve diverse stakeholders, including citizens, elected officials, and other government bodies. Engaging these stakeholders early and continuously throughout the strategy activation process is essential to ensure buy-in, address concerns, and adapt strategies to meet the needs of different groups.
Resource Allocation and Constraints
Unlike private organizations, public entities often face tighter budgetary constraints and rigid funding structures. Effective strategy activation requires realistic resource planning, optimizing limited resources, and prioritizing initiatives to align with available funding and workforce capacity.
Accountability and Transparency
Public organizations are held to higher standards of accountability and transparency. Strategy activation must incorporate mechanisms for regular reporting, performance tracking, and public communication. This ensures that progress is visible and that the organization is accountable for delivering on its strategic goals.
Change Management and Cultural Adaptation
Implementing a strategy in the public sector often requires significant organizational change. Public organizations may face resistance due to deeply embedded processes, workforce structures, and cultures. Effective change management, including training, communication, and leadership support, is vital to ensure that the organization can adapt and fully activate the strategy.

Each of these elements plays a critical role in ensuring that strategy moves beyond planning and into effective execution in the public sector context.

Implementing Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (ERM) in the public sector offers a range of benefits that enhance organizational effectiveness, resilience, and accountability. Here are the top 10 benefits of ERM for public sector organizations:

1. Improved Decision-Making

Benefit: Provides a structured approach to identifying, assessing, and managing risks, leading to more informed and strategic decision-making.
Details: By understanding potential risks and their impacts, public sector leaders can make decisions that are more aligned with the organization’s objectives and risk tolerance.

2. Enhanced Accountability and Transparency

Benefit: Promotes greater accountability and transparency in managing public resources and operations.
Details: ERM frameworks often include robust reporting and monitoring mechanisms that help ensure that risk management practices are transparent and that stakeholders are informed.

3. Increased Resilience to Disruptions

Benefit: Enhances the organization’s ability to anticipate, respond to, and recover from unexpected events and crises.
Details: By proactively identifying risks and developing mitigation strategies, public sector organizations can better handle disruptions and maintain continuity of services.

4. Optimized Resource Allocation

Benefit: Helps prioritize and allocate resources more effectively based on risk assessments and potential impacts.
Details: ERM enables organizations to focus resources on high-priority risks and areas that require the most attention, leading to more efficient use of public funds.

5. Enhanced Compliance and Legal Risk Management

Benefit: Aids in ensuring compliance with regulations, laws, and policies, thereby reducing legal risks.
Details: ERM systems help organizations stay informed about regulatory requirements and implement controls to comply with them, minimizing the risk of legal and regulatory penalties.

6. Better Strategic Planning and Execution

Benefit: Supports strategic planning by integrating risk management into the strategic planning process.
Details: ERM helps align risk management with strategic goals, allowing organizations to better anticipate challenges and opportunities and incorporate risk considerations into their strategic plans.

7. Improved Public Trust and Confidence

Benefit: Builds trust with the public by demonstrating a proactive approach to managing risks and ensuring accountability.
Details: Effective risk management practices can enhance the public’s confidence in the organization’s ability to manage public resources responsibly and deliver services effectively.

8. Enhanced Operational Efficiency

Benefit: Identifies and mitigates risks that could impact operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Details: By addressing potential operational risks, public sector organizations can streamline processes, reduce inefficiencies, and improve overall performance.

9. Proactive Risk Identification and Mitigation

Benefit: Facilitates the early identification of risks and the development of mitigation strategies before risks materialize into issues.
Details: ERM frameworks provide tools and methodologies for identifying emerging risks and developing plans to address them proactively, rather than reacting to issues after they arise.

10. Strengthened Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

Benefit: Enhances engagement with stakeholders by providing clear communication about risk management practices and outcomes.
Details: Effective ERM involves communicating risk management strategies and outcomes to stakeholders, fostering better relationships and ensuring that stakeholders are informed and engaged.

When it comes to attracting and keeping the best people, money matters. You can give employees all the free snacks, happy hours and wellness perks imaginable, but if they feel they’re being unfairly paid? They’re not likely to stick around for long. With the ongoing Great Resignation causing a mass exodus of talent and salary data becoming increasingly accessible, getting remuneration right is more important now than ever. So, in this post, let’s deep dive into how compensation strategies can help you attract and retain your most valuable asset – a top team.

Attracting Top Talent

We can’t undermine the role of compensation strategy in attracting and hiring the best talent. With pay transparency laws cropping up across the globe and the rise in salary-comparison sites like Glassdoor, potential candidates are screening salaries before even clicking on ‘apply’.

In fact, in a recent survey conducted by LinkedIn, 91% of U.S.-based respondents said that they wanted to see salary ranges in job posts. To do this, organizations need to establish a watertight remuneration structure that they’re happy to have out in the open. Carefully assessed pay bands are essential if – or perhaps when – salary ranges become mandatory in your region.

As well as getting people into the interview room, compensation also comes into play to seal the deal on a fantastic candidate. When a candidate is weighing up multiple job offers, compensation packages are going to play a huge role in their decision making process. For some, money is the deciding factor.

And it’s important to remember that compensation is about much more than the figure that appears in an employee’s account each month. Potential applicants are also going to be weighing up bonuses, incentives and other perks that will impact their finances.

Ultimately, attractive, competitive compensation demonstrates that a company recognizes and values the skills, experience, and contributions of its employees. It sends a clear message that the organization is willing to invest in its workforce and reward them for their hard work.

Retaining Your Best People

If you want your organization to thrive, you need to keep hold of your best people. In 2023, retention is more difficult than ever. In fact, three-quarters of nearly 7,000 respondents said they planned to look for a new job over the next 12 months. The primary reason why 67% of these respondents were looking to jump ship? Unsatisfactory pay.

The bottom line is, when employees feel well-compensated, they’re less likely to explore other job opportunities. This means that organizations must make sure they’re regularly benchmarking their own compensation packages against competitors, as well as ensuring that they’re maintaining equity within their own organization.

Talking about what we earn is becoming noticeably less hush hush, whilst platforms like Glassdoor make it easy for employees to see what they could be getting paid elsewhere. Armed with this knowledge, even the most engaged employee will feel disgruntled if they discover that they’re being paid below market value.

Equally, a consistent, equitable salary structure is vital to avoid employees feeling like they’re being shortchanged or undervalued. An objective job evaluation system will ensure fair pay across the board, as well as providing an objective framework that can be openly and easily explained to staff if questions arise.

As organizations know all too well, high turnover is disruptive and eye-wateringly expensive. To thrive long-term, it’s essential to retain the expertise that comes from investing in training and development.

Source: getradar.com

Employee retention has always been an important topic. However, lately, with the fallout from the pandemic, the great resignation, and the great reshuffle, the topic of employee turnover and how to retain employees is on the mind of every leader.

Staying up to date on the latest research and statistics regarding employee retention will leave you better informed and equipped to pull the right levers to ensure your talent remains at your organization, and this article will help you do just that. In it, you’ll find information on what employee retention is, why it is important, the state of employee retention, and what can be done to fix it.

Willam F. Xiebell, CEO of Gallagher’s Benefit & HR division, summed up for HDR why employee retention is so important. He said, “An organization’s ability to retain employees ultimately impacts its bottom line because hiring and training a new employee usually costs much more than retaining someone who is already on the payroll.”

The State of Employee Retention in 2024

As we enter another year of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), it will be crucial for leaders across all industries to understand shifts in the workforce to develop strategies to keep talent from leaving.

The #1 operational priority for organizations is retaining their talent (this is even above revenue) – Organizational Wellbeing Report 2023, Gallagher
The current cost of employee turnover is, on average, 1-2 times the employee’s salary. – Integrated Benefits Institute Study 2023
61% of employers are having difficulty retaining employees. – Integrated Benefits Institute Study 2023
Today, 1 in 2 organizations has a turnover rate greater than 15%, and 1 in 5 has a rate greater than 30%. – Organizational Wellbeing Report 2023, Gallagher
The group most likely to leave their job are Gen Z or Millennials in the United States (53%) and working in the technology/hardware industry (60%) – EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey
20% of frontline employees are planning on leaving their current job within the next three to six months. – Frontline Workers: How to Connect, Enable, and Support Them in the Modern Workplace, Workday 2023
57% of Canadian employers believe that slowing economic growth is reducing employees’ likelihood of leaving their current employer – EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey
50% of respondents agreed they accepted a job offer but backed out prior to starting. – Gartner HR Survey, 2023
4.1 years is the average time an employee stays with an employer. – Bureau of Labor, 2022.

9 Employee Retention Strategies

To help leaders and the organizations they work for retain their employees, we’ve compiled nine employee retention strategies that thought leaders recommend and that the latest research backs up.

Develop a Strong Onboarding Process
Prioritize Inclusion
Embrace Flexibility
Focus on Company Culture
Provide Employee Development Opportunities
Develop Strong Leaders
Find Ways To Show Appreciation
Offer Additional Benefits
Ask For and Use Employee Feedback

Develop a Strong Onboarding Process

Onboarding is the employee’s first impression of their new workplace, for better or worse. Alison Stevens, Director of HR at Paychex, shared the benefits of strong onboarding with Fortune, “As organizations look to improve their onboarding process, creating a welcoming, engaging, and clear onboarding experience can vastly improve employee retention and morale.”

82% of employers have seen improvement in retention by implementing a robust onboarding program. – Integrated Benefits Institute Study 2023
80% of new hires who receive poor onboarding plan to leave, especially those who work remotely. – The Effect of Poor Onboarding on New Hires, Paychex, 2023

Embrace Flexibility
Flexible working, autonomy, and work-life balance are significant considerations for employees if they remain at their current workplace or find one that offers more flexibility. In a recent study conducted by Kathryn Minshew’s company, The Muse, she shared that they found that “Flexibility and work-life balance is coming up as the number one thing that employees and job seekers are looking for, above compensation.”

88% of leaders globally agree that flexible working positively impacts employee retention. – 2023 Global Workplace Study, Targus
47% of employees actively seek a new job because they want more flexibility. – Gartner HR Survey, 2023

Focus on Company Culture
A company’s culture can retain employees or have them looking for their next opportunity. Tommy Loh, Partner at Hendrick & Singapore, shares with HR World the impact of a great culture. He said, “It is clear that culture has a positive influence on business and talent management strategies, employee retention, and financial performance. All thriving cultures begin at the top with purposeful leadership, as the model of the leader affects the entire organisation.”

Toxic company culture was the top predictor of employee attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover. – Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation, MIT Sloan Management Review 2022
34% of CHROs plan to strengthen company culture to retain talent. – The Conference Board 2023

Provide Employee Development Opportunities
Employees want their organizations and leaders to take an interest in their careers and help them grow and develop. Kirt Linington, Owner of Linear Roofing and General Contactors, seconds this notion in his comments to Forbes, “Prioritize training, mentorship programs and clear career advancement paths. This shows employees that the company is invested in their professional growth and development, which can increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover.”

Employees who expect daily or weekly feedback from their direct leader but only receive it once a month or less are 2.5 times more likely to leave their current employer. – Frontline Workers: How to Connect, Enable, and Support Them in the Modern Workplace, Workday 2023
The #1 way companies try to improve retention is by providing learning opportunities, followed closely by upskilling and creating a culture of learning. – LinkedIn 2023 Learning Report
56% of leaders cited concerns over career growth opportunities as the top cause of voluntary resignation at their company – 2023 Global Operation Leaders Insight Survey, Centrical
When leaders or organizations support employee skill building, employees are 4x more likely to work for their company one year from now; when both leaders and organizations support skill building, odds jump to 9x. – O.C. Tanner 2024 Global Culture Survey

Develop Strong Leaders
It’s no surprise that your direct leader greatly impacts your likelihood of staying with your current organization, which is why people leaders need to build their leadership skills. In fact, Hali Vilet, partner with BDO, shared with HDR magazine that “[Effective leaders] help retain talent because those leaders will motivate staff, will have them engaged and staff will want to work for them, and that’s the spot you want to get to. They don’t have to work for you, they want to work for you, and I think it really boils down to leadership. It’s also important for managers to be properly trained, coached and checked in with to ensure that they are able to effectively manage employees and create a good employee experience.”

30% of CHROs are focused on the development of leader’s capabilities to retain talent. – The Conference Board 2023
80% of employees who say their direct leader understands and supports them said they’re happy in their job with no intent on leaving. In addition, a supportive manager can improve an employee’s likelihood of retention by 300%. – Frontline Workers: How to Connect, Enable, and Support Them in the Modern Workplace, Workday 2023

Find Ways To Show Appreciation
Implementing recognition programs and ensuring leaders appreciate and celebrate their team member’s efforts can help employee retention. Dr. Natalie Baumgartner, Chief Workforce Scientist at AWI, explains that “Employees who receive frequent recognition – at least monthly – are more likely to report being engaged, committed, and productive, compared to those recognized less frequently. A simple, meaningful ‘thank you’ can move the needle on engagement and retention as much as a recognition that comes with money.”

76% of American workers agree that employee retention would be higher if their company celebrated personal milestones. – Snappy 2023 Study
64% of employees agree that being recognized would reduce their desire to job hunt. – 2023 State of Recognition Report, Achievers Workforce Institute

Offer Additional Benefits
Employee wellness programs and additional benefits can be a linchpin to retaining employees. Puralator’s CEO, John Fergeson, recognizes the importance of focusing on the well-being of their people and how investing in employee wellbeing initiatives is a proactive step to retaining talent. He explains, “How you treat people can define you as a company. It can differentiate you and build long-term success.”

84% of organizations surveyed agree that offering financial wellness tools in their benefits and wellness programs helped reduce employee turnover. – Bank of America 2022 Workplace Benefits Repor
Organizations see the need to improve their employees’ mental wellness, recognizing that it plays a major role in retention. In 2023, employers will increase investments in these benefits: mental health (91%), stress management and resilience (77%), mindfulness (74%), financial wellness (65%), and telemedicine (65%). – 2023 Employee Wellness Industry Trends Report, Wellable

Ask For and Use Employee Feedback
Everyone wants to be heard, and your employees are no exception. Antonine Andrews, Chief Diversity and Social Impact Officer at SurveyMonkey, agrees. He said, “By giving employees a voice, satisfaction is increased, resulting in a happier workforce with a better sense of belonging. This positive attitude can boost morale and increase retention.”

Organizations and leaders who solicit, use, and acknowledge employee feedback reap the following benefits in a change in their one-year retention, according to the O.C. Tanner 2024 Global Culture Survey. When employees agreed with the following statements, these organizations saw the following positive impacts on retention.
“Organization took my feedback into account”
“Organization communicated how they used employee feedback”
“Organization acknowledged me for giving feedback”
“Organization appreciated me for giving feedback”

Source: niagarainstitute.com

McKinsey conducted a global survey of more than 1,000 directors and found that “boards with better dynamics and processes, as well as those that execute core activities more effectively, report stronger financial performance at the companies they serve.” This shows how important an effective board is to a business and why you should invest in your board of directors’ development.

The more your board develops, the better equipped it is to face the challenges of a fast-moving business landscape. The way directors tackle the challenges and emerging compliance issues is key to gaining that competitive edge over your peers.

Furthermore, Karen Brice, director of governance and board advisory at Grant Thornton remarks “executive and non-executive directors alike tell us that, if their board isn’t adapting fast enough to provide the kind of leadership that is needed to protect and grow the organisation, they could face an increasing sense of isolation from management teams.”

WHAT IS BOARD DEVELOPMENT?

Board development is the process of helping your directors gain access to resources that enable them to improve their individual and collective performance and effectiveness. This could be:

Sharing best practices
Undertaking specific training for continual improvement
Filling skills gaps
Increasing board diversity
Regular evaluations to assess progress
Having a defined role to focus on
Providing access to relevant papers and reports

The benefits of regular director training

There are a number of benefits of undertaking regular director training, for everyone from CEOs to new board members. These include:

Helping forge bonds

Corporate boards do not have the time to forge close bonds if the only time they interact is during meetings. Bringing them together out of the business environment allows them to network in a less formal space where they can be more relaxed and get to know each other better.

This connection can only help in future meetings, making miscommunication less likely, as directors understand each other more deeply. It aids collaboration and facilitates more productive discussion because the members who disagree are less likely to do so with hostility and will be more inclined to find an amicable solution.

Futureproofing the organisation

The business world is growing and changing all the time, with new capabilities, possibilities and risks entering our consciousness. Regular training helps you avoid treading water and keeps you competitive by ensuring you are on top of new technology and current best practices. Besides, it helps you navigate potential corporate minefields in the short, medium and long term.

Training arms your directors with the tools they need to take advantage of the governance landscape and making it a regular activity means that they are always aware of recent developments and predictions.

Encouraging better decision making

Training gives board members better clarity when it comes to early recognition of problems and difficulties for the business. This allows discussions to take place early, in a less pressured manner, giving the board breathing space to fully debate and develop a solution that works.

Without this ability, the board might not recognise a critical threat until it becomes an urgent issue, meaning that there is a tight deadline on decision-making and less time for reasoned, insightful discussion.

7 steps to better director development

1. Evaluate the current composition

The composition of the board is vital in director development, as it dictates the array of competencies and experiences, as well as attitudes, that make up the board. Understanding your current board composition allows you to decide what training would benefit the individuals and, therefore, the collective. This will form the basis of your recruitment strategy.

Here are some elements that you should consider:

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2. Revise board structure

Based on the discussions you have about composition, you can expand to look at the structure of the board as a whole. How can it be improved to facilitate a better flow of information and decision-making?

Is the structure working well right now? If so, consider if this will be the case in the future and consider what changes are needed to keep it fresh and effective.

3. Write down role descriptions

Almost every job that someone applies for has an extensive role description, detailing exactly what the company will expect of the successful candidate. It makes sense that the board of directors works in the same manner. When new directors are recruited to the board, they are there for a reason and not just to make up the numbers around the boardroom table.

Each director should understand what is expected of them so that they can focus on how best they can contribute to the success of the organisation’s strategy. Writing down detailed role descriptions for directors is essential for development as it guides them down specific paths and allows them to think more strategically.

4. Conduct a skills audit

Once you have role descriptions, you can audit the skills possessed by your current board and analyse how they can be developed in order to fulfil those role responsibilities.

If a director is expected to understand the market in-depth, but they have only basic knowledge of the industry, this is a skill that you need to develop through training or recruitment.

Personal development training is one way to address this skills gap. In addition, you could organise team training sessions or boot camps.

5. Set a clear vision

In order to further hone your audit, you need to understand where you want to go. This dictates the skills you need to achieve your aims. Having a clear vision of the board contributes in the same way that writing specific role descriptions does.

It provides goals for directors to work to and a way of measuring progress. If you can benchmark where you are and understand where you want to go, it is easier to see what needs to change to help you achieve your strategic goals.

6. Carry out annual reviews

Board evaluations are essential to ensuring directors are successfully working towards the collective vision. By understanding what you have or haven’t achieved in the preceding 12 months, you can shape the direction of work for the next year in a manner that will increase effectiveness.

An annual board review looks into the work of the board individually and as a collective, uncovering skills gaps, collating feedback, clarifying objectives and much more. Using Boardclic’s Board Evaluation tool, you can utilise this benchmark data to understand what success actually looks like in your sector and to give you a competitive edge over your peers.

7. Organise refresher training every year

Induction is one thing but regular training should also be a part of your director development programme. It is also important to refresh directors’ existing competencies every year. This helps to foster a culture of continuous improvement, which encourages board members to keep striving to greater heights.

The best performing boards do not rest on their laurels but spend time reflecting on their skill sets, improving and expanding them.

FAQ

How can you encourage directors to attend training?

Encourage individual board members to attend a training programme by giving them control over the training they undertake. Rather than booking training sessions and then fitting your directors into the slots, hold a discussion with the board where you encourage members to suggest types of training that they would like to attend, within the areas in which you would like to see development.

Ensuring the style of training fits the schedule of the individual director also helps. Some board members just do not have the time to spare to attend a three-day boot camp workshop. They would probably benefit more from bite-sized sessions instead.

Do you need a board development committee?

You do not have to have a board development committee, but it does make the process of identifying training opportunities, organising activity and tracking success much easier.

When it functions properly, it contributes to a diverse and well-rounded board that is best equipped to tackle the challenges and embrace the opportunities thrown at it. These committee meetings can help provide executive teams with specific guidance on how to best equip themselves to fulfil the responsibilities of the board.

How to measure board development success?

The success of your executive board development is borne out in the effectiveness of the board overall. You can measure this using Boardclic’s board evaluation platform. It can track your progress in each specific area against both your own benchmark and that of the industry in which you operate.

Conclusion

There is no option to stand still in the corporate world, and that certainly applies to board of directors development. Growing skill sets and expertise as well as consistently seeking out best practices and emerging risk factors are both essential to being able to compete, increase resilience and steer an organisation along the right path.

An important element of board development is your annual board evaluation. It can help you discover skills gaps, pinpoint critical challenges and create an open and transparent, collaborative environment.

Source: boardclic.com

A healthy board culture is increasingly recognized as an important element of board performance. But unlike other areas of board governance — composition, risk, succession and strategic planning or financial reporting, for example — board culture is less clearly defined and understood.

When asked about their culture, boards tend to speak in generalities, describing it in terms such as “collegial” and “engaged.” While true, those descriptions apply to many boards and don’t go deep enough in distinguishing one board from another — or provide the insight boards need to understand the role the culture is playing in overall board performance.

Two related forces have made the topic of board culture more urgent for many boards: growing stakeholder scrutiny on board performance and increasing board diversity.

In the past several years, shareholder activism has been gaining momentum. Investors around the world have become more active and vocal, seeking deeper engagement with the companies they invest in, using their influence to drive improvements in governance and holding boards to account on a wide range of issues, from strategy and performance to composition and CEO pay.

With less implicit understanding among directors about how the board should behave, it’s more important than ever to define and manage a board culture.

In some regions, the increase in board diversity is an outgrowth of investor pressure on performance. With research showing that companies with more diverse boards perform better, many investors are pushing boards to increase their diversity, especially gender diversity. Boards themselves recognize the value of injecting a broader set of perspectives into boardroom conversations, and are adding directors from other countries or different industries or increasing the gender, ethnic or age diversity of their composition.

Boards are adding new perspectives to enhance board deliberations and improve outcomes, but greater diversity also increases the opportunities for misunderstanding and conflict among directors with different points of view and backgrounds. In the past, boards tended to be more homogeneous and, as a result, there typically was more implicit agreement about how directors should interact and behave. Directors’ shared assumptions and similar experiences made decision making more efficient.

Today, with less implicit understanding among directors about how the board should behave, it’s more important than ever to define and manage a board culture to facilitate constructive interactions between board members. For boards striving to be more dynamic, performance-oriented and shareholder focused, getting culture right is key.

Board cultures tend to be more heavily weighted in one of four main culture styles: Inquisitive, Decisive, Collaborative or Disciplined.

What is board culture?

A board’s culture is defined by the unwritten rules that influence directors’ interactions and decisions. These include the mindsets, hidden assumptions, group norms, beliefs, values and artifacts (such as the board agenda) that influence the style of director discussions, the quality of engagement and trust among directors, and how the board makes decisions. Board culture also is influenced by the style of the board chair and/or the CEO. Boards can vary by region; in some national or regional cultures, for example, a more direct style is well-accepted, but in others, a more “diplomatic” approach is expected in the boardroom. Absent a dramatic change to composition — from a merger or addition of activist-backed directors, for example — board culture tends to evolve slowly because boards meet and interact intermittently.

We have developed a model for diagnosing and understanding board culture, drawing on extensive research showing that there are two dimensions of culture: attitudes towards people (individual versus collective) and change (flexible versus stable). These same dimensions can be used to evaluate organizational and team cultures as well. In fact, a comprehensive study¹ of organizational culture and outcomes found that companies can define and create an optimal culture that leads to better business outcomes when they have a framework for evaluating culture and the tools to manage it. We have found that many of the same principles apply equally well in the boardroom.

In practice, we observe a wide range of working styles and dynamics in the boardroom, yet in our experience, board cultures tend to be more heavily weighted in one of four main culture styles:

Inquisitive: These boards value the exchange of ideas and the exploration of alternatives.
Decisive: These boards are focused on measurable results, driving a focused agenda and outcome-oriented decisions.
Collaborative: These boards value consensus and having a greater purpose.
Disciplined: These boards emphasize consistency and managing risks and prioritize planning and adherence to protocols.

None of these styles is objectively better or worse than any other. The culture of a board should align with the business strategy and broader business environment and the requirements for working effectively with management. For example, companies in very dynamic industries, when strategy must be reviewed and reinvented frequently, may benefit from a board culture that is more inquisitive and flexible, where directors question assumptions and value the exchange of ideas. When managing risk is a top priority, boards may need to be more disciplined about monitoring results and performance, and following established protocols to ensure the accuracy of disclosures.

How to change board culture: four questions to consider

Because board culture is an important driver of board performance, a natural time to assess board culture and how it supports strategy is during the board’s annual self-assessment. Using an agreed-upon framework and vocabulary like the one Spencer Stuart has developed, boards can diagnose their current board culture and agree on a target culture. A board may want to evolve its culture if it is underperforming, when there is a new CEO or its own composition is changing, or when the business strategy is changing. For example, in a crisis or turnaround situation, a board may want to be more decisive and results-driven. At a strategic inflection point — when the organization needs to figure out new markets, new products, where to invest in acquisitions or innovation — a board may need to be more inquisitive and flexible.

Once the board has identified a target culture, directors can ask the following questions to help shift the board culture.

Do we have the right people in the boardroom?

Boards consider a variety of factors when recruiting a new director. When they want to evolve board culture, boards can consider an additional lens: how a director would help shift dynamics in the boardroom toward the desired culture. For example, a board that wants to become more decisive and results-driven may want the next director to have a no-nonsense, by-the-numbers style, perhaps a CFO profile. A board wanting to become more adaptive and inquisitive may look to add an entrepreneur or an innovator.

Are we structuring our discussions and assignments to focus on the right issues and activities?

Boards can reinforce their priorities by structuring committee and board assignments and meeting agendas in a way that supports the culture they want to create. A board seeking greater collaboration and openness to the ideas of all members may want to close discussions by “going around the table” and soliciting comments from each director.

Do board and committee leaders model the desired board culture?

The board chair has a profound role in shifting the board culture. The chair (or lead independent director) can move topics requiring the most board focus and energy earlier in the agenda, leaving the less strategic items to later in the meeting. If the board needs to become more inquisitive, the chair may decide to reduce the time devoted to operational reviews to leave time for the exploration of strategic alternatives. On a board that has decided to become more disciplined, the chair can direct a change in the board materials and build more structure around discussion topics.

The board chair or lead independent director and the committee chairs also can influence culture by how they model the desired culture. When a shift is needed, board leaders can guide discussions differently, encouraging or cutting off discussion as appropriate. They also may evolve pre-meeting activities, for example, creating a mechanism for directors to ask questions in advance of a board meeting.

A board may want to evolve its culture if it is underperforming, when there is a new CEO or its own composition is changing, or when the business strategy is changing.

Do we as individual directors consider how we are contributing to the culture?

As directors become more comfortable with the language of culture and more self-aware of how they are promoting or working against the target culture, they can provide feedback to one another on behaviors that may need to change. Just calling attention to directors’ habits and assumptions can help the board adapt its behaviors. Depending on what’s needed, the board also could provide a coach, group training or individual training on topics such as decision making, trust building or communication styles. Boards can use their annual self-assessment to evaluate their progress in moving toward the preferred culture.

On an individual basis, directors can reflect on their own behaviors and whether they are helping to shift the culture. On a board that’s overly collegial or collaborative, for example, directors can consider whether they need to weigh in on every topic. Or if the board wants to become more inquisitive, directors can decide to speak up more.

Starting to understand your board culture

When it’s able to diagnose culture, a board can evaluate the role culture plays in board performance and consider whether there are elements of the culture that need to change. Having a common language about the culture and identifying directors’ preferred styles helps board members understand and adjust to the preferences of one another and make better decisions about the potential culture fit of new director candidates. To provide a sense of various board cultures based on our model, we have plotted several examples of board culture below.

Author: George Anderson

Companies’ strategies and operations are facing unprecedented change. Some companies, such as many technology companies and streaming service providers, have thrived in the past few months of upheaval, while companies in tourism and traditional retail are among those facing existential crises. Yet, no matter their financial position, almost every company has undergone a radical shift to virtual operations. Even companies that had nascent or stalled digital transformations have become significantly more tech enabled; this means everything from supporting remote working to finding entirely new market opportunities. Food and beverage brands are now selling directly to consumers, for example, and sectors from home improvement to medicine are innovating as fast as they can to meet both customer and employee expectations for convenience, speed, and safety in the form of low- or no-contact experiences and operations.

As leaders consider how to build on the digital gains they’ve made (however haphazardly) and assess how digital-first operations and the post-pandemic economic reality will affect their strategies, boards have a significant role to play in ensuring their organizations build a digital strategy that will support innovation and performance for the long term. Achieving this goal will require boards and executive teams to take a step back and truly reimagine the business and how it operates. Boards must also keep a close eye on the strategic risk from digital disruption. (For more on how companies can build on crisis-driven digital gains, see “Becoming a digital-first organization: Making the most of crisis-driven digital transformation.”)

To do all this, boards need to understand digital. Many, however, are still lagging in their digital expertise. There a few specific steps they can take to ensure they have the right level of knowledge, supportive governance processes and culture, and a digital orientation. Those that take the following steps will be best able to support the management team in resetting for a digital-first world.

1. Build digital expertise

Just as no board would consider recruiting a director who couldn’t read a balance sheet, boards should now consider basic digital literacy a qualifier to serve as a director. Without that foundation, directors can hardly be prepared to understand how digital drives—and should drive—the company’s overall purpose and operations or how it enhances the ability to understand and serve customers. Further, without a grasp of the basic digital lexicon and an appreciation of the vast array of issues and considerations digital embraces, directors lack the ability to translate what the management team is telling them or to engage on any meaningful level. This leaves them unprepared to meet challenges, ask the right questions, or provide relevant input.

Since most boards are currently lagging in digital expertise, most will need to make it a priority as they make the trade-offs among various considerations inherent in any board recruitment. (This is also true of other areas where boards face increasing expectations, such as sustainability and corporate reputation management.)

Finding such directors won’t necessarily be easy and may well require boards to modify their director-recruiting criteria to ensure they are looking in the right places. That typically means taking on traditional prerequisites such as CEO and prior board experience, since directors with digital skills often skew much younger than the typical director—probably in their 30s, compared with the mid-50s that is the average age of new directors around the world—and are unlikely to have C-suite experience.

However, adding one person with digital expertise is just a start. Boards with only one source of expertise on any topic run the risk of delegating everything relevant to that person, and that person runs the risk of being a lone voice unable to influence the broader agenda. In addition to seeking new directors, board leaders should focus on supporting current directors in acquiring sufficient digital knowledge, which most should be able to do. They can also make digital orientation part of onboarding for new directors who lack it. Further, boards should include on their digital knowledge agenda focused and structured immersion trips to other companies that are digital leaders; one leading company makes one board meeting in four a visit to another company it wants to learn from. Meetings with management teams are also an important part of director continuing education.

Gaining real digital value on the board will also take having one or more directors with deep digital expertise who can serve as stretch thinkers—people who can challenge their fellow directors and the management team on what is possible. These people need to be chosen carefully, however, because digital knowledge alone won’t make them effective in such a role. They also need a clear understanding of the board’s role and responsibilities and to be able to work with other directors to take a holistic view of all the board has to tackle.

Any digital expert on the board should also be able to work patiently and steadily as an influencer with both the board and management. With the board, this individual can nudge fellow directors toward the future, helping them imagine and reimagine what alternative futures for the company could look like and how to get there. With management, this director should be able to work behind the scenes—with the cooperation of the CEO—listening, learning, and making recommendations management will ideally adopt as their own. This kind of influencing works best, in our experience, when a director can plant the seeds of ideas, building awareness and ownership while intuitively understanding what the organization can absorb at any given time and not pushing too hard.

2. Establish a digital orientation

To be effective, boards need to be aligned on their overall purpose, asking and answering fundamental questions: Why does this company and board exist? Who are our key stakeholders? How can we best serve their interests? Similarly, to be effective digital leaders, boards must make sure the company has a clear digital ambition and purpose and that directors are aligned on it as well, understanding how digital transformation will affect every element of the organization and help it better deliver on its purpose. (For more on aligning your board on overall purpose, see Future-Proofing Your Board.)

The goal should be for discussion of digital innovation to be an integral, crucial element of driving impact in the core business rather than a stand-alone topic on the board’s annual agenda. Boards should ensure that digital considerations are woven into both strategy and its implementation, and that the digital strategy sets immediate and longer-term priorities that go well beyond one-off initiatives or the more recent, jury-rigged changes driven by the pandemic.

For that to happen, the board will have had to embrace digital—meeting online, hiring new board members virtually, and making the most of the communication tools and norms (such as more frequent and more informal discussions) that have become standard in recent months.

And, as with any area in which a board wants to assess its own performance, it should set some metrics and regularly track progress against them. Metrics could include the share of directors with specific digital expertise, the amount of time spent discussing the digital strategy, the frequency of meetings with digital and innovation executive leaders, or market share gains from digital innovation, among many others.

3. Innovate governance to ensure the board can get up to speed

Directors with digital expertise are in ever-increasing demand. Previously, companies may have had the luxury of waiting a year or two to add a new director when a regular board vacancy opened up. But now, the acceleration of digital change created by the pandemic means that waiting will almost certainly put companies behind competitors. Boards that can’t recruit digital experts in the near term can compensate by establishing an advisory board or even temporarily increasing the board’s size if they can’t wait for directors to drop off.

4. Support a digital culture

Boards determined to lead the way on digital transformation need to foster a culture that rewards innovation and change and doesn’t penalize failure. That starts with supporting the longer-term thinking required to place bets on huge investments that may not pay off for years. For digital, much like sustainability and diversity, it is the board’s job to see that proper actions are taken in the long-term interest of the company. The board should have a plan for communicating the change story to shareholders—and know how to stand its ground when necessary—explaining why, for example, a long-term investment may be a better bet than seeking immediate dividends. At the same time, boards must support management in not losing sight of immediate strategic and tactical needs, ensuring that digital transformation is part of ongoing operations, not separate from or opposed to them.

A digitally savvy board can also set the overall tone for culture change and model expectations going forward. Something as seemingly small as asking informed questions and explanations from management presenting at board meetings—in essence demonstrating that directors don’t have all the answers—speaks volumes when trying to nurture an innovative culture.

There are also digital considerations in boards’ oversight responsibilities—for example, determining whether there is sufficient talent, at every level, to make what may be a seismic shift. Most organizations have a head start from their generally successful transformations through the pandemic and can build on those. In addition, to make sure the positive changes stick, boards will want to monitor executive compensation to determine whether proper incentives are in place to motivate executives to take appropriate risk as they seek to discover new and better ways of doing things, enabling them to keep up with or, better yet, anticipate change.

Source: heidrick.com

The pace of digital change is accelerating at an incredible rate. Chances are, you’ve heard or read this statement countless times over the past couple of decades. But, it’s just as true today as it was at the beginning of the digital era. Arguably even more so now that the so-called “burning platform” of digital transformation has quickly become a “burnt platform.”

Digital change isn’t a looming threat or shift that’s on the horizon. It’s here. It’s happening right now. And it’s up to you to adapt to it, drive it and turn it to your advantage. Whether you’re talking about changing customer demands, agile new competitors entering the market or employees demanding greater flexibility in where and how they work, the immense cost of failing to adapt means standing still isn’t an option.

But, despite how long digital change and transformation have held their place near the top of most organizations’ strategic agendas, just 16 percent of executives say their company’s digital transformations are succeeding. Plus, 72 percent of strategists say their company’s digital efforts are failing to meet revenue expectations.

To better understand why that might be and identify the underlying causes of unsuccessful digital change projects, Thoughtworks recently conducted a major Technology Proficiency study.

Among the findings, we learned that growing businesses are far more likely to make technology decisions at the board level compared to organizations seeing low or zero growth. But we also discovered a significant skills gap at the board level of many businesses.

The digital board skills gap

Many of the enterprises we surveyed display a gap between the technology areas where directors are the most proficient and the technology areas that are a business priority. The board has digital skills, just not necessarily the right ones to enable growth.

It’s a finding highlighted by other researchers too. For example, a global study by the MIT Center for Information Systems Research found that, among larger companies, just 7 percent have a top management team where more than half of members are digitally proficient. Plus, those companies outperformed the rest on growth and valuation by more than 48 percent.

The need for a digital-ready board is clear. But what does it take to increase digital readiness at the board level, and what does a digitally-proficient board look like?

The anatomy of a digital-ready board

There are many ways to define digital-readiness. But, at the board level, it means being informed, proficient and empowered enough to advise the C-suite in continuously making strategically solid technology decisions. It involves understanding where specific technologies could support a particular strategy or help the organization react to changing conditions or achieve strategic goals.

Crucially, it doesn’t mean that every member of the board has to be a well-versed expert in every emerging or strategically important digital trend. That’s still something the organization gets from its CIO, digital experts and advisors. However, every board member needs to understand how these technology trends can empower their organization while helping them achieve their strategic goals.

The key to digital success at the board level is developing not only understanding digital trends, but also bringing diversity of perspective to the discussion. The board is a team just like any other in the business, where no single person needs to be an expert at everything and diversity of experience, background and perspective can be a huge benefit. This diversity of talent and perspective can help boards gain a better balance between their fiduciary responsibilities and the need to shape the long-term strategies of their companies.

The importance of agility in the board

Being knowledgeable about the latest digital trends is essential for boards, but it’s also vital that the board adapts its governance and pace of decision-making to the current business climate — one characterized by frequent disruption and capital allocation shifting rapidly toward technology. While the board’s traditional role won’t change — to support and challenge management with a focus on strategy, risk and performance — they must simultaneously adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to help the C-suite stay ahead of this level of disruption and innovation.

In many of our clients, we see a new generation of boards emerging. These boards proactively embrace the opportunity to be the disruptor versus simply managing the risk of being disrupted. These emerging boards make sure that board composition is digital-ready and frequently review their ways of working while adapting their board agendas, processes and tools to enable leaner governance and faster decision-making. In addition, these boards make frequent collaboration and interaction with the C-suite a priority, always staying within the guardrails of the original remit of the board as non-executive directors.

5 steps for increasing the digital readiness and agility of your board

At Thoughtworks, we’ve helped boards with different levels of digital readiness and agility to plan, navigate and execute digital transformation strategies and initiatives. While every board’s journey is unique, we’ve identified five macro-steps that can help any board achieve a higher level of digital proficiency and agility:

Step 1 – Improve the awareness of the board around digital trends.

Proactively conduct sessions to help the board keep up with relevant digital trends and identify which ones are applicable across the business. For example, we often facilitate sessions with board members and executives where we share the most recent technology trends and contextualize them to help the team understand how those trends could become a driver in value creation. In some cases, we take them to visit some of our digital native clients and partners so they can interact with key stakeholders in businesses where digital technologies are at the core of their business model. The hands-on experience enables them to envision the different aspects needed to transform their organizations, besides technology.

Step 2 – Identify how digital trends could enable untapped customer and business value.

Support board and C-suite members to crystalize their digital aspirations, expected business outcomes and contextualized implications while identifying the challenges and opportunities for adopting relevant digital trends. This is an excellent opportunity to have executives and non-executive directors exploring and discussing new technology trends and their ability to enable new customer experiences, services and revenue streams. It also opens the door to visualize critical capability gaps in the organization like technology, culture, talent, operating models and governance structures that might need transformation to sustainably drive digital innovation.

Step 3 – Build a high level, strategic roadmap to take advantage of digital trends.

Engage board members in reinforcing the broader, long-term benefits of adopting these digital trends while developing a shared understanding of the capability investments needed across talent, culture, technology, governance and operating models. By following the principles of value-driven transformation, every board member should understand the value of adopting digital trends to their business as we can align with management on the metrics of success.

Step 4 – Discuss the role of the board in providing governance to the adoption of digital technologies and digital business models.

Driving digital transformation across operations and business ecosystems challenges the effectiveness of traditional board governance, regular committees and formal l engagement with management and staff. Therefore, board and C-suite members must discuss how to leverage lean and agile governance practices and tools to steer digital transformation in ways that deliver the most value for everyone, examine options such as co-creating governance principles for new digital capabilities like artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous machines. Lastly, boards should also explore their role in unlocking continuous human learning capabilities within the organization and its partner ecosystem, to help ensure that the organization can adapt to the changes brought about by digital transformation.

Step 5 – Set a regular cadence for the previous steps.

Use the above to maintain an updated view of emerging technology, its implications for the business and how it could be implemented and properly governed. Digital transformation is ever-evolving — a quarterly cadence will ensure that the board and C-suite know how technology trends enable both short- and long-term business strategies. In addition, it’ll help ensure close, ongoing collaboration between executives and non-executive directors.

Start your journey to digital board readiness today

Digital trends and emerging technologies are strategically important to businesses in all industries — and every board needs to become digital proficient to make informed, timely decisions about those trends. For some, the idea of having to improve or gain digital proficiency can be daunting. But, in practice, it’s far easier than most believe. Experienced business leaders don’t need to become highly-skilled tech experts overnight. Instead, they need to understand critical emerging tech trends and their potential impact on the business.

Boards are experiencing a seismic shift in which they must balance long-term business model changes driven by digital technologies and customer expectations with operational governance, compliance and short-term costs reductions. At the center of this seismic shift, there is an opportunity to rethink how boards work and adopt agile and lean practices — within the guardrails of their remits — to collaborate with the C-suite and stay ahead of disruption by leading digital transformation. Those who embrace this shift will become catalysts for digital transformation, enabling C-suite executives to build resilience into their organizations and adapt to constant digitally-driven changes across marketplaces, customer groups and society at large.

If you’re articulating your own digital transformation journey and want support to help guide your strategic decisions while delivering the best results for your business, contact us today.

By:

Kathy Gettelfinger,

Marcelo De Santis &

Matthew Schauer

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