Urgent Need for a Wake-up Call Among European Board Directors to Adapt to the Digital Reality

Urgent Need for a Wake-up Call Among European Board Directors to Adapt to the Digital Reality

There is an urgent need for a wake-up call among European directors: adapt to the digital reality or risk being outdated”  says Suzanne Liljegren, chair of the ecoDa (European Confederation of Board Directors) Communication Committee and member of the Board of Directors of the Swedish Academy of Board Directors in an article in Board Agenda, a pan-European publication focusing on Corporate Governance and Board matters.

“There is an urgent need for a wake-up call among European directors: adapt to the digital reality or risk being outdated”

The article, “Strategic thinking in the age of digital transformation”, written by the business journalist Maggie Pagano, highlights the digital challenges facing European Board Directors and quotes the joint research ecoDa and Swedish Academy of Board Directors has done together with Digoshen.

“Most non-executives are not accountants but they can read a P&L. They should have an equal level of skill in technology.”

Antony Jenkins, the former chief executive of Barclays, Chairman of the fin-tech startup 10x and on the board of Blockchain, is one of the interesting board leaders cited in the article and he says “Most non-executives are not accountants but they can read a P&L. They should have an equal level of skill in technology.”

Get more insight by reading the article in Board Agenda here.

There are some fast needed actions for European boards to adapt to the digital era, as both competence additions, but also competence upgrade for the full board in understanding the impact of technology on

  • business models
  • risk of cyber attacks
  • skills and culture to increase organizational agility

New approaches to the traditional board year and board meetings are required to ensure that the board more frequently monitor the company’s strategy and innovation relevance and progress.

European board directors need to strengthen the approaches to balance the focus of controlling, to also being cheerleaders, to guide the companies into the digital era. They need to be more of role models themselves and increase their actions within the three crucial areas Digoshen identified for leaders in the digital era

  • Sense at Scale
  • Involve to Innovate
  • Align the Actions

Digoshen’s current research together with academia focuses on boards best practices for corporate renewal in the digital era. If you are aware of or interested in such board best practices, please contact us at http://digoshen.com/contact/

This blog post is shared both on my own blog www.liselotteengstam.com, as well as on the blog of Digoshen www.digoshen.com, where I am Chairman of the Board.

At Digoshen, we believe that Companies, Boards, and Business Leadership Teams need to understand more of the digital world to fully leverage their potential when bringing their business into the digital age.

To understand where you and your company stand in relation to digital business and leadership progress, take our survey at Digoshen.com/research and get a free of charge personalized report with recommendations on how to move forward. The survey is anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete.

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We provide inspiration and support to help transition business leaders into a more insightful digital position for themselves and their companies.

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