Insights from a #corpgov nomad, in Europe

In the last two weeks I have visited six countries spread across three timezones; slept in seven different beds; experienced snow, sunshine and rain; attended an intensive training course at Cambridge, one of the world's top universities; delivered six formal presentations; and, participated in more than 50 significant discussions about organisational purpose, corporate governance, strategy and board effectiveness. It's been invigorating! Along the way, I've been fortunate to gain many insights, a few of which are summarised in the points below:

• The understandings of corporate governance and expectations of boards in Europe is changing. Whereas the focus in the past has been on ensuring management did its job well (an agency-based perspective), the boards and directors I spoke with indicated that they are starting to wrestle with the challenge of understanding the purpose of the company and how the value-creation mandate might be fulfilled. Several folk added that their usage of the term 'corporate governance' has changed, returning to the early usage: a descriptor for what boards (should) do when in session (i.e., in board meetings).
• Related to the first point, boards in several European countries (well, in Belgium, Netherlands and Finland anyway) are starting to think more carefully about the longer-term implications of their decisions. This is in stark contrast to the short-termism that continues to pervade US and Canada boardroom and shareholder culture.
• De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch Central Bank) is increasingly taking a formative view of supervision, expecting financial institutions to not only demonstrate compliance with established statutes and codes, but also to demonstrate how value is being added to the banking community and beyond in the future.
• Many people (both in public forums and private conversations) volunteered that diversity is important if boards are to make high quality decisions. However, the same people quickly added that their usage of the term meant diversity of thought, not gender or any other observable form of difference between group members. 
• KPMG, IIA and people from several other Finnish agencies were very interested in the implications of the proposal that board involvement in strategy is good for both effective board practice and business performance. It seems that the findings from my doctoral research hit a spot, with both strong support and many questions about the mechanism-based model of corporate governance and the opportunity the model presents to help boards understand how influence can be exerted from the boardroom.

These are but five significant insights to emerge. If you'd like to know more, please get in touch. 

This is the first of two postings, covering the first week of my nomadic journey. Here's the second instalment.