In this podcast, James Beasley, Senior Director at Nasdaq Governance Solutions, discusses the concept of individual accountability, which was first developed in the financial services sector. James explains that to apply the concept an organisation will undergo a process of defining and communicating its senior individuals’ accountabilities. James considers whether the lessons learned in financial services from applying this regime could be extended to other sectors, arguing that outcomes such as a sense of responsibility coupled with a strong degree of clarity could be universally beneficial. James suggests practical steps that company secretaries or governance professionals and their boards can take to implement individual accountability at their organisation.

FTSE350 boards are displaying more confidence in the economy, with the results of a survey published today by The Chartered Governance Institute showing a twofold increase in the number of respondents believing that the global economic outlook will improve in the coming year and a fivefold increase in the number believing that the UK economy will improve. This is not yet enough to encourage greater capital investment, however, despite fears lessening over Brexit, with fewer companies now rating an exit as damaging and the overwhelming majority (81%) not currently considering relocating their head office or listing.

In this podcast Susan Stenson, a partner at Independent Audit, discusses the impact that environment, social and governance (ESG) issues are having in the boardroom. She outlines the importance of linking these areas back to the overall purpose and strategy of the organisation to enable directors to understand which issues they should focus on and how they should communicate their approach to their stakeholders. Susan outlines how governance lays the foundations for a strong response to ESG issues from boards of directors. She also argues that if the board is honest about how it has decided its ESG priorities, its approach is much more likely to be successful.

In this podcast James Beasley, Senior Director at Nasdaq Governance Solutions, discusses stakeholder capitalism and its significance for businesses today. He argues that stakeholder engagement is the means by which to achieve stakeholder capitalism because it allows the business to understand different stakeholders and therefore act in their interests. James argues that the convergence of many monumental events over the last two years has brought stakeholder capitalism into the limelight and front and centre for boards. He outlines innovative methods for engaging with two important stakeholder groups: customers and employees. James argues that organisations need to develop more sophisticated data points for understanding stakeholders, focusing on qualitive rather than quantitative data to bring stakeholder experiences to life.

In this podcast, Ben Fielding, Head of Sales for Global Entity Management at TMF Group, talks about the challenges facing organisations in carve-out situations.

In this podcast, Sharon Constançon discusses different tactics a company secretary or governance professional can use to help their board identify any unaddressed issues that are making it ineffective. Once it has been identified, Sharon outlines tactics to address and overcome the elephant in the room. The conversation covers how to get the unspeakable topic on the table, how to address disputes and bullying among directors and how to make sure critical risks are really being addressed. It looks at how the company secretary or governance professional can empower the board through coaching directors and facilitating governance improvements on behalf of the chair.

In 2018, the EU set out a clear action plan for sustainable economic growth. The EU’s objective is to maintain growth without creating problems for future generations due to depleting resources or environmental crises, such as climate change.

In this podcast, Jennifer Sundberg, Co-CEO of Board Intelligence, discusses her company’s theory of collective intelligence, which advocates moving away from superstar CEOs and board-centric decision-making to recognising the whole organisation’s potential to make great decisions.

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