(lively music)
-: It used to be that if you understood the past,
you could grasp the present and anticipate the future.
That's no longer the case.
The world is changing
and expectations of people are changing,
expectations of society, governments, investors, customers,
all of these are changing.
What's become clear is that the previously accepted role
of business in society is contested.
Old paradigms are crumbling
but a new cohesive paradigm has yet to emerge
and this is where socially transformative businesses excel.
This is a space where corporate boards
have a unique opportunity
to bring value by steering strategy
and capital in a way that allows the company
to take full advantage of this new unfolding paradigm.
And it's a space where individual board members
can infuse their personal legacy.
Is my contribution distinctive?
Is it sustainable?
Does it contribute to the health and longevity
of the organization and the ecosystem in which it operates?
This requires them to comprehend how the world is changing
and to make choices as to how the organization
is contributing to that change impulse.
Here, boards can have a decisive impact
but in my experience, they don't
because they fail to make choices.
They lack the confidence to choose
and the heuristic to justify their choices.
Instead, with both the speed and complexity
of change at an all-time high, boards seem to paralyze.
To overcome this, the board
and their members need to come clean
and be honest about themselves.
They need to recalibrate to the times,
ensuring a mix of current capabilities, backgrounds,
insights, and aspirations, as well as quality of strategy.
In the end, the choice is simple.
Do you as a board member want to oversee an organization
that is adding to the problems of this world
or will you help steer the organization to contribute
to the solutions?
(lively music)