CG news update vol.12

In 2020, Directors Worry About Balancing Economic Downturn, Business-Model Disruption
December 12, 2019 By Barton Edgerton

The 2019-2020 NACD Public Company Governance Survey, released this week, received responses from over 500 public-company directors to more than 80 survey questions. The questions discussed the trends most likely to impact organizations over the next year; areas in which boards would like to improve; the size, shape, and structure of boards and committees; and oversight of key areas of focus for the board, including strategy formulation, enterprise risk, cyber risk, human capital, compliance, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

Overall, the survey results show that in the year ahead, boards face two conundrums: navigating a disruptive operating environment while preparing for a slowdown, and pushing forward with digital innovation while pausing to ensure a secure cyber environment. Directors also report important progress in two emerging areas of oversight: human capital and ESG risk. (Read more click)
 

Identify, Assess, and Adapt: How Directors Can Proactively Oversee ESG Risks
December 10, 2019 By Veena Ramani and Hannah Saltman

A slew of headlines from the past year identify a critical business reality: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks have financial consequences.

PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy earlier this year, for example, was dubbed “the first climate-change bankruptcy” by The Wall Street Journal. In 2018, for the first time ever, more CEOs in the United States were fired because of “ethical lapses” than over financial concerns. And in 2017 alone, up to $941 billion of revenue from global public companies still depended on commodities linked to deforestation.(Read more click)

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