New report: A Clearer Role for the Board?

Earlier this year, the Aarhus University School of Management and Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies conducted a research project to investigate the role of company boards in maintaining organizational future preparedness.

We interviewed non-executive directors of European companies across more than 20 industry sectors, many of whom represented companies with 5000+ employees or more than €1bn annual turnover.

Key findings are that board members understand their role to include being long-term stewards of organizational value, but that this is a significant challenge when faced with high levels of external change and uncertainty in their industry environment.

The majority of respondents reported that their activities and those of their fellow board members achieved merely adequate future-preparedness (just above 3 on a 5-point scale), not least in the light of Covid-19 for which their companies were, without exception, unprepared.

This directs attention to how directors achieve the future-readiness, within the confines of board role, and whether current capabilities and approaches with regard to industry future-assessment are adequate to this task. The report concludes with key initiatives in this regard.

Download the report for free below.