For a number of years, as the new year approached, I have prepared a one-page list of the key issues for boards of directors that are newly emerging or will be especially important in the coming year. Each year, the legal rules and aspirational best practices for corporate governance matters, as well as the demands of activist shareholders seeking to influence boards of directors, have increased. So too have the demands of the public with respect to health, safety, environmental and other socio-political issues. In The Spotlight on Boards, I have published a list of the roles and responsibilities that boards today are expected to fulfill. Looking forward to 2012, it is clear that in addition to satisfying these expectations, the key issues that boards will need to address include:
- 1. Working with management to navigate the dramatic changes in the domestic and world-wide economic, social and political conditions, in order to remain competitive and successful.
- 2. Coping with the increase in regulations and changes in the general perception of business that have followed the financial crisis. Once it was said, “The business of America is business.” Today, it could be said, “The business of America is government, and a dysfunctional government at that.”