On the board’s agenda

Formerly a siloed and specialized topic, technology has become interwoven throughout many facets of governance.

Over the course of the next year, board members could find themselves living in interesting times.

In the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and similar innovations, the board’s governance of technology has garnered increasing levels of attention. But the rapid pace of advancement has brought a shifting set of new (and often unfamiliar) opportunities and risks.

The complexity of setting pay may be magnified when it involves groups with varying and perhaps conflicting short-term and long-term interests. It may be difficult to find the balance between these varied stakeholders with different time frames. Ultimately, though, and regardless of the number and volume of other voices, decisions on this matter fall to the board and its compensation committee.

The CEO is usually the most visible and prominent position within a company. The board’s role in CEO succession planning is a unique role and one of the highest-priority activities in which they engage. When things go well, an effective succession planning strategy can result in a CEO with transformative leadership potential who executes on the company’s long-term vision and adds value for shareholders and other stakeholders.

The recovery from the pandemic has been uneven at best, and it brought its own challenges—chief among them inflation. Board-level strategy around such issues often requires weighing a proverbial constellation of economic data. While cost cutting is often the “standard playbook” response in this area, there is value in weighing all the options available to promote economic resiliency. Periods of volatility are also an opportunity for boards to reaffirm their stewardship commitments. Such actions can pay dividends in social capital – a return on investment that, while not measured in dollars, can be just as valuable.

Deloitte’s 2023 Tech Trends report offers a navigational framework for boardroom conversations in this area and specifically suggests a holistic governance approach where leverage of technology is based on the business use case rather than its perceived novelty or innovativeness.

In this edition of On the board's agenda, we discuss some of the critical topics like board composition, technology, workplace, climate, organizational strategy and risks, and finally the board itself, that have remained relatively constant in the past five years, as well as new and emerging topics that will likely be on the board’s agenda in 2023.