Guidance Archive

Here we go again: banking risk

Strategy
You would be hard pressed to find an organisation that doesn’t see technology as a strategic driver.

The Tech Deficit

Strategy
You would be hard pressed to find an organisation that doesn’t see technology as a strategic driver.

Why are we here?

Strategy
“Who am I? Why am I here?”

What does 2023 have in store?

Strategy
Well, 2022 was certainly a rollercoaster of a year. On every front – geopolitical, macroeconomic, social, national political and more – Boards have had to respond to rapidly changing external environments.

All about the Customer

Strategy
Developments in the financial services sector have a tendency to spread into the wider world of governance (just look at risk management!) So it makes sense for all boards to pay attention to how the regulators are putting the consumer front and centre.

Checklist: Subsidiary Governance

The Board of a regulated subsidiary has always been a tricky place to be. Directors need to balance group demands with local legal and regulatory requirements and often have to do so through the lens of a complex matrix where accountabilities are not always straightforward…

The current economic, political and regulatory landscape is likely to add new complexities and challenges around your governance at subsidiary level. The implications will differ amongst companies in the same group and each should have its own plan to deal with the issues that relate to them.

It’s now more important than ever to be comfortable that your local board’s oversight of the business achieves the right balance between responding to the shareholder’s (Group) expectations and making and ensuring an appropriate local response to unexpected change.

Here is a checklist of the things we believe your subsidiary board should be addressing to make sure you remain effective.

Checklist: ESG

The debate about ESG rages on. While some see it as one more piece of burdensome regulation, it is our belief that deciding how to deal with ESG can, and should, be a moment of opportunity for boards. Debating whether the E, S and G rightfully fit together is pointless. What lies below ESG is a series of matters that are critical for Boards to grasp and act upon…

Stressing the Business Model

Strategy
Are you rigorously thinking through how your business model is being impacted by the multi-fronted economic crisis?

Keynotes: Purpose-Driven Boards

Purpose has always been important, but factors like climate change, social inequality and political instability have increased the focus on how business can help to address current societal problems. Increased stakeholder scrutiny means businesses may now face being boycotted if their operational methods are deemed harmful to people or the planet. Regulation is reinforcing this shift with increased requirements around accountability and transparency…

Economics in the Boardroom

Strategy
It’s no news to anybody that we’re now experiencing some fundamental economic changes. Interest rates above 1%, rapidly increasing inflation, energy shortages..

Guide: Creating a Skills Matrix

A Board Skills Matrix is a relatively simple grid or table which lists the essential skills and experience the board agrees it should possess both currently and looking to the future. The skills matrix maps these against the attributes each individual board member brings to the table. Creating a skills matrix is a chance for the Board to agree what skills and experience it needs to possess collectively in order t…

Guide: Diverse Succession Planning

It is widely accepted that diverse boards are more effective. Regulators are taking far more interest in what boards are doing to mitigate against Group Think. Stakeholders are increasingly demanding evidence of not just discussions but actions which create real…

Checklist: Creating a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

The purpose of your Diversity & Inclusion Strategy is to create real change in your organisation. This checklist breaks down the three key areas your board needs to address.
Our experience shows that too many boards still don’t have sufficiently robust succession plans in place. Creating a genuinely diverse board entails actively planning ahead.
Considering these eight steps will help create a board succession plan th…

Keynotes: Why Your Boards Needs a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

It seems everyone’s talking about Diversity & Inclusion. In a recent PwC report racial and ethnic diversity topped the list as the single most important attribute being prioritised in the board’s next director search. However, while awareness is definitely on the rise, the key challenge that remains is how to create the desired changes in practice…

Watch out for your reputation

Risk Management
Value destruction comes in many forms. A hit to your reputation is often a reliable way of taking a hit to the share price or to morale, or to both

Guide: Interviews or Questionnaires?

Choosing between questionnaires or interviews can seem like choosing between lesser or deeper insight. But it doesn’t have to be. Questionnaire-based and interview-based reviews
can both generate valuable insights. We provide key points to consider when planning your…

Checklist: Avoiding Board Pitfalls

Why do clever people do stupid things? Independent Audit Founder, Jonathan Hayward and Dr. Paul Furey, Founder and CEO of Paul Furey Ltd. share 12
practical steps you can take to understand your board’s dynamics and to ensure it avoids the usual governance…

Understanding your Impact on Stakeholders

Stakeholders
The U.S Business Roundtable has announced that a company should exist for the benefit of all, which has brought discussions around stakeholders more into focus.

Breaking Silos

Strategy
Most organisations bemoan silos. Everybody seems to agree that organisational structures which give rise to operational obstacles are A Bad Thing…

Guide: Better Board Conversations

Boards exist to support the executive team in running an organisation legally and successfully. The topics they address can be tricky and the stakes are often high. A good board provides challenge, advice, and moral support. But for a group of diverse individuals who meet infrequently, high-quality conversations can prove challenging…

In this guidance, Dr. Paul Furey shares 10 steps to improve your board dynamics. These points were explored in depth in our April 2022 webinar.

Guide: Risk Management Oversight

We often hear complaints from Non-Executive members of Audit and Risk Committees that “We’re not getting what we should out of our Risk Management’.” This guide is adapted from a December 2021 webinar…

Stress Management

People & Culture
Many of us will deny we’re over-stressed even though it’s what we’re feeling. So we try to hide it and deal with it alone, even when we know we shouldn’t.

Understand your Business Model

Strategy
Do you really understand what makes your organisation perform (well or badly)? How it all hangs together? What needs to happen. Where the big costs lie?

Working From Home: The Risks of the new Normal

People & Culture
Boards’ immediate concerns about the risk and control implications of Working From Home have been calmed and hybrid working is set to become the norm.

Hot Topics for 2022: What other boards are missing

Strategy
As 2021 comes to an end, boards are thinking ahead to 2022. They’re thinking about what lies in store. Further uncertainty for sure. But on its own that’s not very helpful as an agenda item.

What are board meetings for?

Meetings
We see a lot of boards in action. Sometimes it’s an enjoyable and stimulating experience. Other times we find ourselves asking “what was that meeting supposed to have achieved?”

Checklist: Internal Board Effectiveness Reviews

It may involve a lighter touch, but it needn’t be just a box-ticking exercise. Your internal self-assessment can provide the board with real value. This guide provides a step-by-step approach and outlines the 5 Key Elements to consider as you plan your next review…

Board meetings: The Hazards of Hybrids

Meetings
Boards are all very keen to meet together in the same place, and it’s beginning to happen.  But the next few months will continue to be unpredictable and demand flexibility.

Board Training: it’s tricky

Development
For some directors training is still a tricky topic. Maybe it’s the word that puts them off – perhaps a feeling that they’ve done enough training…

Away Days: Back To Normal?

Strategy
It might be a bit difficult to remember what was “normal”. But, back then in the pre-Covid world, most boards normally had the annual strategy day (or two) as a fixed item in the annual calendar.

Position it!

Information & Support
Board papers are a perennial challenge. That makes them a reliable topic in board evaluation reports. First the good news:…

IoD Centre for Corporate Governance Report

Stakeholders
IoD Centre for Corporate Governance “From Intention to Action: Board Effectiveness and Stakeholder Governance” What makes a board effective in how it governs

Third Parties: do we know what’s happening

Risk Management
For a long time now it’s been widespread practice to depend on third parties for operational support – and sometimes on a very big scale. Outsourced operations, services, systems support, staffing, assurance checks

The Principal Risk Discussion: what’s it for?

Risk Management
For many boards this is the time of year for finalising the Annual Report. So that means, at least for the UK listed companies, that it’s time for the principal risk list

Diversity & Inclusion and Boardroom Performance

Composition
Boards with increased diversity create leadership environments in which decisions are made more carefully

Cyber risk during the crisis: Checklist

Risk Management
Checklist: Questions to ask about cyber risk management during the pandemic

On Screen Meetings: Take Two

Meetings
It’s worth taking another look at how to optimise virtual meetings

2020 Shock? Take Stock

Strategy
Boards should take stock over Christmas and consider what’s needed for 2021

It’s tough at the top

Meetings
What makes a good Chair: a look at the many different skills needed

The Board and the Company Secretary: Checklist

Information & Support
Checklist: Questions for the Board to ask about developing the Company Secretary’s role

A more strategic role for the Company Secretary

Information & Support
The Board can help the Company Secretary add more strategic value

Looking ahead post-pandemic: Checklist

Strategy
This is undoubtedly a busy and trying time for boards

Looking ahead post-pandemic

Strategy
Boards need to think ahead to the post-pandemic environment

Decision-making in virtual meetings: Checklist

Meetings
Checklist: Thinking through the Board’s decision-making in a virtual meeting environment

Decision-making in a virtual world

Meetings
Making sure of sound governance around decision-making in a virtual meeting world

Working as a subsidiary board: Checklist

Strategy
Checklist: Thinking through the different role of a subsidiary board

Risk management, control and COVID-19

Risk Management
Audit & Risk Committees need to make sure risk and control remain solid in the COVID-19 environment

Agendas and papers for virtual meetings: Checklist

Information & Support
Different agenda structures and different board packs are needed for virtual board meetings

How to chair a meeting well

Meetings
Video: How to Chair a meeting well

Rethink and reshape the way you work

Meetings
Virtual meetings mean a different focus – and that means changing the agenda and papers

Cyber risk questions the Board needs to ask about COVID-19

Risk Management
Boards need to be asking about changing risks and controls with COVID-19 and Working From Home

A checklist for your Virtual Board Meeting

Meetings
Checklist: Making sure you’ve thought through what’s needed for a good virtual meeting

Making virtual board meetings work well

Meetings
Virtual board meetings need different ways of working

The temperature rises in the boardroom

Strategy
Environmental challenges and the strategic response need to be higher up board agendas

Assessing external audit effectiveness

Financial Oversight
Audit Committees need to take a structured approach to looking at external audit

Board life in 2030?

Development
A look into the future: thinking about how boards might work come 2030

Listening to the employee voice

People & Culture
A look at the role of the non-executives and how best to capture employee views

Overseeing Internal Audit

Financial Oversight
How Audit Committees can look at the effectiveness of internal audit

9 Steps to a better board review questionnaire

Development
A guide to better board evaluations when you’re using questionnaires

8 ways to get the most from your strategy away day

Strategy
Making your strategy day work well is not easy so we share some tips

Learn More About Thinking Board

Development
Our pre-prepared self-assessment questionnaires are designed to ask the right questions in the right way and save you time in the process.

More than bean counters

Financial Oversight
Assessing the Finance Function is a strategic issue and not just about control

Cyber risks – what a board should be asking

Risk Management
The questions to cover, including some the Board might not have thought of

Joy or dread? How do you feel about your board pack?

Information & Support
Practical guidance on how to structure board papers better

The Ins and Outs of Private Sessions

Meetings
Non-exec only sessions are important but can go wrong: some tips on getting them right

Order, order! How to run a good Board meeting

Dynamics
Chairing a meeting is difficult: some tips on what works well

The New Code: Spotlight on the Principles

Development
How boards should respond to the emphasis on Principles and what the business is for

NED Versus Machine

Development
Technology in the board room: a look to the future

Thinking of Others

Stakeholders
It’s getting ever more important to think through how the Board is considering stakeholders

Committee Reporting

Committees
Getting committee reporting back to the Board can be tricky

Refreshments please!

Composition
Succession planning matters a lot – but it isn’t easy

De-stressing and Stressing

Risk Management
The value of scenario discussions and stress-testing should not be underestimated

Director Performance Review

Management Team
Individual director performance reviews can be tricky: we take a look at how to get it right

(Audit and) Risk Committees

Committees
The work of the Risk Committee needs careful structuring around responsibilities and agendas

Bias in boardroom decision-making

Dynamics
Boards run the risk of unconscious bias in their discussions and decision-making

Board portals: some Do’s and Don’ts

Information & Support
Board portals have transformed life as a NED – but there are pitfalls and care is needed

Management in meetings

Meetings
The way boards involve the management team in board meetings could often be better

Hot Topics

Strategy
Top topics for board agendas in 2018

Committees and Risk

Risk Management
It’s important to make sure the different roles around risk at board level are clear

The CEO Report

Meetings
Starting the board meeting with an effective CEO Report makes a big difference

The Hygiene Factor: Getting Meetings Right

Risk Management
Thinking through the practicalities of making the board meeting work well

Is your risk management truly effective?

Risk Management
The Audit Committee needs to look at the impact of risk management, not just the process

Subsidiary boards – it’s not that simple

Risk Management
All too often the effectiveness of governance in subsidiary companies can be an afterthought

Dealing with Uncertainty

Risk Management
Thinking through what might happen needs better scenario decision and board time

In danger of being caught short?

Development
A lot companies are getting into the habit of planning their board reviews earlier

Remuneration Committees: Avoiding the pitfalls

Committees
It’s easy for the RemCo to get things wrong given the spotlight and the complexities

The best way to assess organisational culture

People & Culture
Highlights from our research for the FRC on what boards are doing around “culture”

Innovative Innovation

Strategy
Boards talk about the vital importance of innovation but does it get enough focus

Remuneration Committees again on the front line

Risk Management
The RemCo needs to think through its strategic approach as getting it wrong can be costly

The Nominations Committee: not so easy after all

Committees
The NomCO role is complex and is not just about succession planning

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