Thursday, February 11, 2021

Ultimate Influence of Corporate Board

It needs to be remembered that governance is a discipline which continually requires stroking and attention. Otherwise, it will stagnate and lose its ability to steer the business in the right direction.

Corporate board is one of the most crucial governance bodies in the modern enterprise. Plato used the term governance in a metaphorical sense to rule strategically. In reality, human and social behavioral factors underpin GRC success. BoD leadership needs to be future oriented, their leadership vision is to serve as a future shaper and strategy enabler, to clear the path, whether that is to eliminate obstacles or to provide coaching and guidance. Good boards advice, but great boards inspire and make a significant impact on performance, culture, corporate brand and reputation.

The way a board influences organizational performance is via their interactions with the executive teams: Top executives are defined as those business leaders/managers who have regular social or formal contact with corporate boards and directors. There’s a correlation between corporate governance and business performance, and there's a clear connection between ineffective governance and poor performance. Specifically, corporate governance has a direct link to each business and its processes. The insightful board leader has the ability to influence peers or the management team as they undertake a broad range of crucial decisions involving issues such as strategy oversight and performance monitoring, etc.

Ultimately, the board takes the praise or the blame depending largely on their ability to influence the business outcomes. They set policies and provide principles governing the company's commercial activities. The positive impacts come from corporate governance good practices on the business performance as well as their own boardroom performance. To improve their leadership effectiveness, they encourage open critical debate, fresh perspective, and they appreciate the collective insight. They do not dominate discussions, instead, they facilitate and welcome constructive feedback.

Highly impactful board leaders with a dynamic persona will directly influence business culture: The Corporate Board sets the tone for making good policies and culture is the policy. Culture is established by those at the top, the corporate board and the top leadership team for setting the tone of the corporate culture. They should be open-minded to enjoy “out of the box” thinking for cultivating the culture of learning, high performance, and innovation. They practice open leadership, have a growth mindset, and build a positive working atmosphere to enforce trust and innovation. In fact, accountability and oversight are all part of the game changes that boards must address.

Technically, the culture of an organization is an indicator of the competency parameters at their best. We have to shift gears and mindsets to see the culture of an organization as a collective whole living breathing thing. With corporate board’s guidance, assess where the organization is regarding the impending change, the discrepancy between current culture and the desired culture, are there incoherent conflicts, dissonance and downfalls. Culture needs to be changed to adapt to the emerging digital trends and pull strategy execution towards the right decision. The good GRC disciplines won’t stifle innovation, but enforce it. Ideally, an innovative board sets the right tone for the culture of innovation and drives people centric business transformation.

The corporate board can contribute to brand enhancement as a coherent effort of overseeing the business vision and strategy: Corporate branding includes how to develop a set of practices for promoting the brand name of a corporate entity. Branding is an integrated component of business strategy. There should always be substance behind branding messages, there needs to get advice from the corporate board. The “spirit” of the organization comes from the top. At the board level, the commitment is that we are all in this together and have our passions focused on strategic business goals with a cohesive leadership to build a strong business brand.

As the matter of fact, a company's brand is one of its most valuable assets, and like any asset, it is the responsibility of the board to protect and nurture it. Reputation is part of the business brand, and the business brand usually also reflects the enterprise culture. BoD takes significant responsibilities to protect the reputation of a company and nurture a high performance culture, continue to reform governance practices, continue to raise the accountability of the board toward business reputation and continue to develop a strong organizational brand.

It needs to be remembered that governance is a discipline which continually requires stroking and attention. Otherwise, it will stagnate and lose its ability to steer the business in the right direction. Forward-looking corporate directors should make a significant impact on both tangible and intangible business success factors, advise and mentor the management for achieving well set vision and reach the next level of organizational maturity.

1 comments:

First time here at your blog and wanted to say i enjoyed reading this.

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