The Boards´ new challenges

Companies face a colossal challenge in a complex context; their future results will directly depend on the Board’s understanding of their industries, the trends impacting them, and the policies they implement. 

In recent years, and throughout the pandemic, companies have been adapting their businesses with new strategies to promote transformation and growth. CEOs and Boards were expected to develop their companies in a “new normal.” A new normal that did not last long. 

Quickly, the Board’s expectations collapsed. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence and climate change, among other factors, but especially the potentially impactful consequences of the change in leadership in the presidency of the United States, represent challenges of unprecedented characteristics. 

The present is unstable and difficult to understand, and the future is, more than ever, unpredictable. The world has entered a new era, and consequently, companies will have to modify their strategies more or less continuously to ensure their resilience and sustainability. That will be the new “new normal.” 

This context will demand agile and effective responses from the Board and senior management.

Boards will remain responsible for ensuring the company is profitable and sustainable, establishing a culture emphasizing strong strategic objectives, ethical standards, regulatory compliance, and resilience. 

Transcendental leadership will be a necessity. This type of leadership will require increasingly skilled, committed, well-informed, and agile Boards capable of articulating the interrelationships between long-term success and the interests of shareholders, customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Furthermore, they must be involved in execution. 

Their ultimate success or failure will depend on all of this.