Independent Directors (IDs) continue to be seen by academics, regulators and investors as cornerstones of modern corporate governance. In the UK, US and most other developed countries codes of corporate governance mandate that a majority of board directors – including the chairman of the board are deemed independent.

Discussions around 'best interest' of the company visà- vis shareholders/owners, which is now becoming increasingly ground-zero topic, has set a pathway to this opinion piece on Board Governance to ensure sustainable value creation.

Specifically, the murder of George Floyd and it changed our conversations, actions, and approaches to race and within that, gave stakeholder capitalism a renewed relevance.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, human resources (HR) leaders rightly prioritized employee health and safety and then office re-openings, while also dealing with a myriad of unforeseen pressures, such as changing workers' expectations, reinvigorated social justice movements, and growing supply chain problems.

When Tom Peters and Thomas Waterman Jr. wrote In Search of Excellence, first published in 1982, they set out to provide a blueprint for how companies can “stay on top of the heap”.

Board decision-making reminds me of the film Sliding Doors. The film presents two outcomes. In one, the main character just about makes it through the closing doors of a train and the outcome is x.

Understanding how to offset, mitigate and transfer risk is the true work of executive leaders and board directors. This work becomes even more important amid increasing and evolving cyber threats.

The emerging new world of business and economic dynamics is going to be unprecedently more challenging and exciting as well. More challenging it is because of the intensifying VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity)

Day zero, you have arrived and you have 100 days to plan. (H0) How do you determine if your new company is addressing the underlying issues that hold back data from being what they imagine it can be?

A lot has changed these last few years with businesses adapting to new ways of working. Business leaders have travelled a good distance in a short amount of time for corporate social responsi - bility.