The last decade has seen many boards focussing primarily on regulatory and governance issues. Mindfirst clients and partners indicate that the pendulum is now swinging to more strategy focussed agendas. This observation has been corroborated in several recent independent studies including a new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Clarkson Centre for Board Effectiveness (CCBE) in collaboration with the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD).
According to the online survey of 429 Canadian directors, there is a disconnect between what directors feel is important to spend their time on versus what they actually do spend their time on. Currently directors spend the majority of their time in meetings on ‘other business’ (21.9%) followed by operations (21.3%) and then strategy (15.8%). Risk management was at a low 8%. However, when asked how directors want board meeting time to be allocated, 24.7% said strategy first, followed by other (20.3%) and operations (14.3%). Risk management moved up to 11.1%. Many boards are starting to develop new processes to better engage in agenda setting and board meeting oversight, but are not yet able to allocate meeting time based on their own agendas.
The survey, conducted in the spring of 2009, was developed by PwC and the CCBE in collaboration with the ICD. A total of 429 directors from diverse sectors and industries responded to a request to provide qualitative and quantitative feedback on their experiences as a director in a questionnaire. Others also provided comment in an interview format.