One of the board’s most important roles is to empower the CEO and Executive team to think and act long- term. That is investing in talent, driving innovation, and taking the long view on corporate performance. Of course, the short-term cannot be ignored! There is a genuine need for short-term stewardship, but it should not distract from the key strategic focusing on the long term.
The challenge face by boards is how to help the company align near-term activities and results with long-term value creation. Indeed, major investors (such as BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and others) have made clear their expectations for companies to focus on long-term value creation and the factors driving it. Factors such as strategy and risk, talent, investment in research and development, culture and incentives, and, more recently, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, particularly climate change and diversity. These issue, in particular ESG, are squarely in the sights of not only investors, but also of employees, customers, and the communities that organisations interact with.
We help boards better understand these issue so they can help management widen its aperture to understand how the company’s strategy and operations impact all of its key stakeholders and drive long-term performance.
Our Governance Advisory adds value to boards by helping them understand whether existing governance reflects good practice.
- Benchmark reporting to market good practices
- Identification of areas for improvement (in annual report and/or issues with internal framework and approach) dependent on appetite and suggested solutions prioritise
- Development of implementation plans and change programmes
- Peer and sector comparison providing detailed and insightful comparison,
- Enables gap analysis of As-Is structures and the identification of solutions.