Governance

Despite the 2019 Business Roundtable pledge to redefine capitalism for the benefit of all stakeholders, progress by companies still lags behind the rhetoric. To move the dial, we need more courageous boards.

In times of difficulty, knowing when to get involved and learning to master your emotions are essential skills to prevent making a bad situation worse, writes Axel P Lehmann.

Organizations must ensure they have a strategy for AI’s governance and ethical oversight. DE&I offers principles and practices that can inform decision-makers, explain Heather Cairns-Lee, Öykü Isik, Sarah Toms, and Josefine van Zanten.

A pipeline of experienced, qualified senior women business leaders exists – yet their selection for board positions remains far from guaranteed.

Described recently as the “economic avant-garde” by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the federal president of Germany, steward-ownership is gaining ground among companies seeking to have a positive impact on the world. To protect their mission and ensure…

Impact metrics are not just about keeping regulators and investors happy, writes Sonja Haut, they can help unearth new pockets of value for companies, from talent and brand appeal to efficiency and innovation.

Companies have a tightrope to walk in balancing the competing interests of a broad set of critical stakeholders. This three-step framework can crystallize the delicate trade-offs — leading to better, more informed decisions.

Fostering curiosity and considering people’s lived experience can increase well-being, motivation, and productivity in the workplace.

As family offices grow in popularity and expand into riskier investments, families should take a holistic view of their whole ecosystem to build a healthy future for themselves and society, argues family business expert Peter Vogel.

In the first of a series of practical guides for organizations on sustainability, Knut Haanaes, Frédéric Dalsace, and Jules Wurlod explain why any successful sustainability strategy needs to be underpinned by a solid business case.

Digital ethics boards can help companies navigate tricky ethical issues as they innovate – provided they are carefully planned, say Tomoko Yokoi and Michael Wade at IMD Business School

The recent COP27 meeting made only limited headway on measures to tackle climate change, but climate action by companies gives more grounds for optimism, and the current challenging economic and geopolitical environment is not going to divert busi…

The governance aspect of ESG is a fundamental driver of environmental and social quality. Our experts outline the methodology required to ensure board-level leadership in sustainability.

Jeff Bezos will find the move from CEO to Chairman of the Board far from easy. Didier Cossin and Michael Watkins offer advice on avoiding the pitfalls. As Jeff Bezos is soon to learn, the qualities that make a great CEO do not necessarily make a g…

Clarify your idea of a top-performing sustainability firm and compare it with the characteristics of those that are ranked at the top

Archegos had secured billions of dollars in credit from several investment banks using opaque financial derivatives that enabled it to amass massive stakes in companies under the radar. When its highly leveraged bets collapsed, it was hit hard and…

ESG has more momentum today that CSR, and is driving action forcefully, driven largely by investors

Redefine stakeholder capitalism for real impact with three guiding principles by Paul Strebel.

COVID-19 has presented an unprecedented global challenge, which governments and societies have met with differing degrees of success. But with the epidemic now entering a second phase, the time has come to shift attention from single-mindedly figh…

The governance of central banks is being challenged. They have lost the clarity of their mandate, they are structurally losing their independence, and they are expected to fulfil social and quasi-political responsibilities without corresponding le…

Many companies, even traditional ones, have entered a process of continued internal and market transformation through innovation. Think of the announced revolution in the automobile industry with electric and self-guided vehicles, or in banks with…

The world over, the vast majority of very long-lasting firms are family owned and family run. What made them highly successful when so many businesses around them failed? These families have much to teach other businesses, not only on governance, …

Conflicts of interest abound at the board level. They constitute a significant issue in that they affect ethics by distorting decision making and generating consequences that can undermine the credibility of boards, organizations or even entire ec…