Taking New Ideas to the Board
What makes a thought leader?
Publishing great content? Positively portraying a company or an executive? Talking about something new—perhaps in a new way? Putting forth ideas that move a market?
Thought leadership is all those things, but none of those things on their own.
To be effective—worth the significant time and effort that is often devoted to it—thought leadership must challenge the status quo. It must get the audience thinking about the topic as it relates to their own circumstances. It must drive dialog. And it must create action.
The cases below are recent projects that bring together multiple viewpoints from dozens of carefully constructed interviews, facilitated group discussions, and real-world experiences in driving change. They each offer new insight, bolstered by specific, actionable ideas that help boards of directors become catalysts on behalf of their organizations.
The Compensation Committee Blueprint
A visionary, yet practical roadmap for the next-generation compensation and human capital committee
This blueprint is based not only on the extensive work of leading consultants in executive compensation and leadership development, but also on the first-hand experiences and expertise of forward-thinking and change-oriented directors. The collective insight, advice, and encouragement to transform in service of a broad set of stakeholders can lead organizations to multiple positive outcomes and ultimately, to long-term value creation.
Incentivizing an Integrated Digital Transformation
Digital transformation represents many potential positive outcomes for an organization’s efficiency and bottom line. However, it also brings some challenges for corporate culture and the workforce.
A good leader has to manage it all. And of course, boards must have a clear understanding of the operational and competitive landscapes and be in active dialog with management—asking the leading questions that can uncover unforeseen risks and opportunities, and developing a well-rounded team with the right CEO as captain.
Work Has Changed
What began as forward-thinking early n 2019 led to radical reality in 2020. We said disruption is pervasive in today's workplace. No matter the industry, ownership structure, or mission, what organizations are expecting their employees to do is changing. How, when, and where the workforce operates is also changing. Despite all of this upheaval, most companies continue to rely on the same historical and hierarchical organizational structure, protocols, and processes. The “attract/retain/motivate” models may no longer be enough to ensure an adequate, engaged labor supply and a fit-for-purpose workforce.
Pearl Meyer and the WCD Thought Leadership Commission published a call to action and provided a roadmap for boards and management teams to reframe the risk of this disruption as an opportunity to create benefits for all stakeholders.
Evaluating, Structuring, and Communicating Executive Incentives and Climate Issues
Companies are coming at climate issues from very different points. Some are just beginning an exploration phase, working to understand how their business affects the environment and what actions might be achievable. Others are very far along: they have already determined what can and should be done to provide a meaningful result and they are doing the work to construct measurable, long-term, climate-related, executive incentive plan goals.
Many are somewhere in between, and all can likely benefit from a robust, stakeholder-specific communication strategy that explains what they are doing, what they are not doing, and how these decisions have been made
