International Governance Workshop: Reflections

The second annual International Governance Workshop is complete. A small(ish) group of leading thinkers assembled at the Toulouse Business School in Barcelona to discuss and debate emergent research and to ask the "So what?" question. Overall, the presentations and papers were of a high standard, as was the discussion and debate that followed each paper. Also:

• The organisers did a great job. Barcelona in June is like Goldilocks—not too hot and not too cold. The venues, both at TBS and those used for extra-curricular dinners, were conducive to good interaction between the delegates.
• The highlight of the workshop (for me) was Silke Machold's keynote talk. She challenged much of the conventional thinking, and called both researchers and practitioners to re-think boards, board-practice and corporate governance expectations.
• The discussion over wine in tapas bars and restaurants was something to be savoured. Even while socialising, delegates continued to think about the challenges facing companies and boards, and to explore options and scenarios to move from corporate governance towards the notion of a value-creating board.
• The main theme (actually, challenge might be a better descriptor) that emerged from the workshop was 'change'. The nature of board research needs to change, from investigating isolated and observable attributes of boards and corporate governance activity, to studying boards themselves, both in situ and holistically. This presents a huge challenge for researchers, because it means that straightforward statistical analyses probably need to be replaced by more sophisticated techniques not unlike those used in sociology, psychology, behavioural economics and related fields.
• The dominant logic of companies—maximisation of shareholder returns—probably needs to be reassessed in the light of wider stakeholder issues. This is not a call for Marxist or socialist-style interventions, but rather a recognition that shareholder maximisation to the exclusion of other logics is unlikely to be sustainable in the longer-term.

While this conference was amongst the smallest (in terms of delegates) that I have attended in recent years, the quality of the discussion and debate was amongst the highest that I have experienced anywhere. Senior academics openly interacted less experienced researchers and other attendees in the discussions, to the extent that it was hard to tell who was who unless you looked at the titles on name tags.

From small beginnings in 2014, the TBS team has a clear vision of what they want to achieve. This second workshop built on the first workshop (I am told, I did not attend the first one), which augers well for the future. I commend this workshop to all academics, consultants, advisors and serving directors with an interest in board practice and business performance.