Corporate boards and senior executives face a host of internal and external issues, such as impossible compliance and governance expectations as well as a lack of diversity among their ranks. This makes appreciating and responding to emerging trends, such as stakeholder activism, regulatory compliance and technological threats, among others, particularly difficult. This is especially tough with the rapid build-up and interconnections of intangible, non-conforming risks, which are at once difficult to measure and do not respect time any more than traditional governance approaches. In the face of these and many more issues, what might have constituted “good governance” or corporate leadership does not go far enough.
This book challenges conventional wisdom of corporate governance and group decision-making and offers c-suite executives and corporate board members tools for identifying where breakdowns in governance are likely to occur, and how to avoid them or prepare for their inevitability. Each chapter examines blind spots, risks, and opportunities, and presents practical recommendations and current illustrations of ineffective leadership and risk management, such as Elon Musk’s $40 million tweet to the seemingly endless onslaught of wide-scale governance failures, such as Wells Fargo and Volkswagen. Further, the book also explores the governance failures that gave rise to the #MeToo movement and the growing tendency of market activism that is blowing apart statutes of limitations.
Readers can expect to learn:
• Key forces shaping enterprises, both public and private.
• How to respond affirmatively and in a values-based manner to push back against these forces.
• ”Teachable” moments that have either contributed to or amplified corporate risk, as well as the erosion of institutional trust.
• How to demarcate new boundaries for the enterprises they lead or interact with as customers, investors, or other stakeholders.
With key guidance on maintaining corporate value systems and setting clear strategic objectives, this book will direct corporate leaders on how to adapt to the need for change and improve competitive strategy from a maximizer model, which is driven by as much as a firm can have, as fast as they can have it, to an optimizer model, which errs in favor of longevity and enterprise resilience.
