Insights from a #corpgov nomad, in the UK

This is the second of two instalments summarising observations from my recent two-week skip across Western Europe. This summary covers the UK leg of the trip. You can read the first instalment here; the European leg.

The trip was framed around four objectives, namely, to share learnings from my recently completed doctoral research and discuss the implications for boards; fulfil some speaking engagements; discuss emerging trends with boards; and, attend a training course. After travelling between cities (actually, countries) every day during the first week, the second week was much more settled. I was based in London for two-and-a-half days for meetings at institutions and with directors. The balance of the week saw me at Cambridge University, for a training course. Here's a brief summary of the key observations:

• Director recruitment: The criticism levelled by many aspiring directors—that many board appointments are based primarily on prior relationships and not director competency or 'fit'—remains rife in the UK. Despite a plethora of calls for more a robust process, the dominant question asked by many boards and nomination committees continues to be "Well, who do we know?"
• Institutions: Directors' and governance institutes (including the Institute of Directors and the ICSA: The Governance Institute) continue to promote themselves as champions of board performance and director professionalism, supported by a bevy of training courses, press releases and contributions to emergent practice. However, almost half of the directors that I spoke with (most of whom are members of at least one institution) have concerns over the direction and focus of directors' institutes. They noted that institutions have become somewhat self-centred, losing sight of their stated purpose of serving the interests of members and promoting the profession. Remedial suggestions included holding directors accountable for performance and any acts of malfeasance (including de-badging miscreant members of their chartered status); moving the discourse away from populist topics to substantive matters; and, weaning boards off the notion that compliance with corporate governance codes is a valid measure of good performance. 
• Performance: The long-held understanding that the primary responsibility of the board of directors is to recruit the chief executive and to oversee management remains the dominant logic in the UK, especially in the publicly-listed company community. Whereas many commentators and directors (including me) promote a performance-based understanding (whereby the board commits to determining and pursuing a value-creation agenda) most boards remain comfortable limiting their contribution to monitoring and controlling the performance of their chief executive.
• Board evaluations: Directors are increasingly aware of the emergent expectations of shareholders and other stakeholders; that a periodic assessment of board performance is appropriate. However, while directors' institutes have for some time recommended that boards submit themselves to scrutiny, most directors that I spoke with indicated that they remain uncomfortable with formal external evaluations. Privately, they harbour concerns that the results may be used to expose poor practice and, potentially, be used to remove under-performing directors. Sadly, it seems that preservation (of income and status) remains the dominant logic for many directors.
• Blueprint for Better Business: After spending a week-and-a-half delivering presentations, meeting with boards and fulfilling advisory engagements my last two days in the UK were spent at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, at an immersion workshop run by the Blueprint for Better Business organisation. The motivation for attending was straightforward: to understand the organisation's proposition more fully, especially to determine its applicability in practice. I came away convinced, to the extent that QuarryGroup will become a facilitator of the blueprint to businesses in Australia and New Zealand (at least) from 1 May onwards.

If you would like to know more about these observations, please get in touch.