Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance & Political and Economical Risk
Good governance continues to gain prominence in public debate but it is not clear how this can be provided on a global scale or what institutions are necessary for it to emerge. Global companies balance risks that are economical & political, research-based, market-oriented, organizational and technical. What does this mean for the board of directors - in terms of board composition, the duties of its members, their level of commitment and remuneration? And in terms of capacity for ongoing self-transformation? What does this mean for the sustainable creation of value - for the company, its stakeholders, clients and society at large?
Session 1, May 3, afternoon
Jacqueline Ternier-David, International Forum for Social Innovation
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?*
Why "governance" became a fashionable word now?
… to compensate the failures of traditional or pseudo-modernist models for management. But the positive consequence must be discovered especially through etymology. Governance carries an unconscious content: the systemic vision that one needs for steering an institution like a ship (including the interactions between its various sub-systems and with the environment). This points out the crucial difference between governance and management, which implies, etymologically and unconsciously, to consider persons as horses to be tamed.
* Sydney Pollack, 1969
Ruling the waves, not waving the rules
Good corporate governance is a bit like reading the tea leaves. It requires sensing the processes in one´s constituencies and realizing ones role in them, being able to go with what is happening, not upsetting it.
We often see things go wrong in corporate governance where individuals exceed their role within their constituencies, offsetting what in itself could be a resilient system. They often think that it is either them or the group, while more succesfull individuals see their success as emerging from the success of their constituency.
Session 2, May 4, morning
The Biology of Business: Key to a Sustainable Future
The way we do business is closely related to our scientific/cultural understanding of an inevitable Darwinian struggle in scarcity. Historical perspective, however shows that this theory was rooted more in the political economy of Darwin's day than in scientific observation. An updated scientific story of evolution shows this mode to be obsolete, inefficient, expensive and dangerous. The biology of sustainable natural systems, from our bodies to rainforests, has direct application to governance systems and how business will function in the future to everyone's benefit.
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