How is the board doing?
An arguably significant minority (26 percent) of all respondents wish for improvements in the way their board oversees economic or domestic/global political risks.
That figure is highest among those at mid-cap companies (32 percent) and lowest among those at large caps (21 percent). More than a fifth (21 percent) of respondents in North America would like to see improvements in this process, compared with 32 percent of those in Europe.
Respondents who see room for improvement in the way their board oversees economic or geopolitical risks made comments such as:
‘Discuss in a more regular and structured way’
‘More in-depth discussions on global political risks’
‘Bring in an economics expert to present’
‘Formalize as an information item within reports, with discussion as necessary’
‘Internal and external presentations’
‘More in-depth discussion of the implications on the company’s business operations’
‘We should have a more direct focus on this issue and consider for each regular meeting whether there are updates or issues relating to these two matters that should be discussed or raised with the board’
‘More purposeful review of these issues at every board meeting’
‘Have it as an agenda item on quarterly board meetings’
‘Updates to the board at every meeting as it relates to our risk scorecard and appetite, delivered via the risk committee update’
‘Would like to receive ideas on how to implement improvements – tools, platforms or ways to structure governance that may contribute’
‘We need to be more aware of the impact of any changes in domestic political headwinds’
‘Would like to hear from external economic experts. Would like to have board and management discuss scenario planning – such as: what if China invades Taiwan?’
‘Make a global geopolitical discussion part of overall strategy discussions once a year. Have presentations/do scenario planning on future issues during enterprise risk discussions’
‘Better resources’
‘I think the executive team needs to do a better job providing relevant information’
‘Education/training materials’
‘Perhaps we should set up a [risk management] committee to discuss’
