What’s top of mind for board and executive team members?
Findings from the first-ever joint survey on management and governance topics by Roy C. Hitchman Executive Search and the IMD Global Board Center
With organizations facing relentless disruption and uncertainty, how board members and executives navigate the abundance of risks, challenges, and trends confronting them is fast becoming an important differentiator for performance.
In this first joint survey by Roy C. Hitchman Executive Search and the IMD Global Board Center, we aimed to understand which topics are top of mind for board members and executives and identify key areas of alignment and divergence. A major takeaway from the survey, carried out in 2023, is that both senior executives and board members are struggling today to prioritize the most relevant and impactful drivers of performance for their organizations. A particular challenge is balancing the need to invest in R&D to create value with a lack of strategic clarity, as well as the tension between the desire for shared principles and calls for greater diversity. This might be explained by the difficulty in managing the day-to-day business needs while responding to external pressures, including those related to technology adoption, diversity initiatives, and environmental concerns. The review of individual survey questions underscores the absence of clear priorities, with a broad spectrum of topics garnering similar attention across industries and demographics. Possible explanations include the subjective nature of assessing priorities and the impact of varying organizational challenges faced by respondents.