When I mentioned to a colleague that I was spending a day at a Corporate Governance conference, plus dinner and speech, she looked at me pityingly and said ‘and what was the second prize?’ Perhaps I’m turning a little bit geeky, but most of it was very interesting. I know, doesn’t sound likely, but trust me. Although, of course, all the surveys show that trust seems to be in pretty short supply all round.
There was certainly the serious, for example Professor Mervyn King of South Africa (former Judge of the Supreme Court, Chairman of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in SA, Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative in Amsterdam, and Chair or Deputy Chair of more international governance and reporting groups than I have room for here) on the new agenda for Corporate Governance; and Sir Malcolm Williamson (Chairman of Clydesdale Bank plc) on the case for the Board mandate.
But I hadn’t expected to see professional actors taking on the challenge of portraying scenarios of a Board in disarray with a crisis on their hands. The laughter provoked felt like a recognition of potential behaviours a bit closer to home than comfortable....
But the quote of the day came from Brian Pomeroy (amongst other roles Chair of the Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Taskforce and the Gambling Commission, and NED of the FSA). He picked up the mood of many re governance when he commented to the effect that improving corporate governance didn’t need more codes ‘we’re ankle deep in codes....’ but it needed better leadership, and changes in behaviour and culture in the boardrooms. Support all round.
...and hit the Davies targets in one fell swoop!
And oh yes –panel panic over! Ideas had come together. So if the key factors in governance for the future are around leadership, behaviours and culture in the Boardroom – shouldn’t that be a role that more HRD’s should be able to step up to? With their own Chairs, and as non-execs on other Boards?
And if some of those new HRD NED’s were female, you could improve performance and governance, and hit the Davies targets in one fell swoop!
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