This article explores how meaningful change in risk and governance can be achieved without confrontation or disruption for its own sake. Through the career of Courtenay Brammar, it highlights how systemic weaknesses—particularly in cybersecurity—often ste
Are boards quietly moving beyond the woke
era? It’s an interesting question. The honest answer is: perhaps. But it’s a
mixed picture and it’s contentious, so before we continue I want to make it
clear I have no personal agenda.
As someone with a highly commercial
background who now mostly works for social and nonprofit organizations, I just
want to make sure we all serve society and its best interests, whatever those
might be.
In Chapter 6 of my book Risk,
Opportunity & Performance: The Art of Taking Worthwhile Risk, I examine
how boards are regulated, the internal dynamics that shape their operations,
and the cultures that influence their decision-making processes.
To conclude the chapter, I decided to
search for best practice and mega-trends in companies’ annual reports. My
initial analysis spanned 2019 to 2024 and included fast-growing technology
firms, established corporations, banks, nonprofit social enterprises, and
international organizations.
I have recently updated my research, and
recent developments are proving to be even more fascinating.
Clearly, when reading these documents, the
financial numbers are important. That’s obvious, but they are only
backward-looking. When looking to the future and the prospects for growth and
improvement, it was hard to make sense of the text.
North American SOX-driven 10-K reports
frequently include helpful statements of intent. However, their risk
assessments sounded like unstructured lists of concerns dictated by a corporate
lawyer undergoing therapy.
European and Pacific Rim reports were much
wordier and more structured – but what did it all mean?
In a desperate hunt for insight, I
eventually resorted to undertaking word counts. I have to say I was skeptical
this would be of value, but as it turned out it was more interesting than I had
expected.
On a practical level, counting words in
documents with modern tools and even AI sounds easy, but it isn’t. Furthermore,
key words such as ‘income,’ ‘profit’, and ‘sustainability’ are used in
different ways in different geographies.
I struggled to find insight into how boards
approached risk-taking and opportunity selection, but I did manage to develop
some insight into how boards responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and their
appetite for issues such as diversity and inclusion and climate change.
In this article I summarize my conclusions,
but in a future edition of Connect, I will publish the data and more
details of the conclusions – and you
decide for yourself.
