Digital competence is becoming an important attribute of an effective board of directors. This article will explain how innovative digital solutions influence the activity of the boards and analyze the predictions for their future.
Challenges of the digital age for modern boards
Digital technologies open up the possibility for decentralized accounting and decentralized management forms, so people increasingly trust electronic management resources based on blockchain technologies and other distributed ledger technologies.
Every year technology increases its importance within the organization. The MIT Sloan School of Management study aimed to understand the dependence of financial results on the digital maturity of the board and the presence of “digital directors” in it who are able, based on their experience and education, to understand how technology will affect the company’s business in the next decade. To do this, an analysis of the available interview data, biographies, and reports of more than 40,000 directors was carried out, and exciting results were obtained using machine algorithms.
Companies with at least 3 digital directors on the board have a 17% higher profit, a 38% higher revenue and a 34% higher capitalization. At the same time, such growth is not observed on boards with one or two digital directors.
The future of the board of directors
Videoconferencing has reached a stage where it is seen as a necessity. Using cloud board portals provides cost-effectiveness, scalability and flexibility to meet your growing communication needs. Using the cloud is a big step and can bring significant benefits, but the boards should be aware of the risks associated with data. You can find more on the boardsoftware.net.
Therefore, boards of directors will pay more attention to non-financial priorities, including sustainability and corporate culture, according to a PwC survey of board members of more than 100 companies from various industries in the future. It is expected that for “boards of directors of the future”, digital infrastructure and services will become integral elements of the strategic development of the companies, noted in PwC. Nearly all directors interviewed by PwC say they are taking steps to innovate. In one way or another, 98% of respondents promote innovation in the company, and 56% include innovative and technological changes and risks in the discussion and see them as strategic challenges in the next 5 years.
Board software – new opportunities for future boards
The board software is an innovative solution designed to enchase the productivity of the board of directors. The software ensures complete support from start to finish of the board meeting online- from platform technology to communicating with the audience. The board meetings should not be limited to one hall at one address. With a cloud-based solution, board members can join and participate anywhere in the world, from the comfort of their home or office in the park or on vacation.
So, the board portal solutions ensure the following functions:
- creating a corporate data repository;
- determining the order of access to information;
- document routing;
- collaboration on documents;
- document lifecycle support;
- organizing virtual meetings.
The ability to carry out the entire cycle of work with documents in the software reduces the time for their passage through structural divisions and the search for documents necessary for management to make decisions. Also, with the introduction of the board portal, non-production costs (search, re-approval of documents, duplication of information, etc.) and the cost of purchasing consumables and maintaining a paper archive are reduced.