Sustainability

Governance Watch - Issue 73

Governance Watch - Issue 73

Lessons from 2020

The potential implications of a no-deal Brexit haunt UK business as the end of a year dominated by Covid-19 looms. At time of writing there is still no clarity on the detail. If there are lessons to be learnt, they are surely around the folly of backing oneself into a corner even as the surrounding world faces new and urgent challenges requiring innovation, fresh thinking and collaboration. Regardless of the UK’s future relationship with the European Union, businesses need to look to themselves to see if their corporate governance is fit for purpose.

Governance Watch - Issue 72

Governance Watch - Issue 72

Ethics in a pandemic

As we start looking to the end of 2020 and dare to imagine the possibility of life without Covid-19 thanks to the best efforts of global science on a vaccine, one thing is clear: the role of ethics in corporate governance and in forging resilient, sustainable businesses could not have been made more clearly.

Across industry sectors, businesses continue to struggle for economic survival, as do their employees. The importance of paying attention to ethics, to understanding and engaging with employees and their values particularly when physically distant with remote working has spawned an army of consultants willing to offer advice. If corporate governance is the essence of a business, then ethics must be the glue that holds it together and makes it productive. Ethical issues, and issues which are fundamentally about ethical choice whether or not they are branded as such need to keep rising on the agenda of corporate concern.

Governance Watch - Issue 71

Governance Watch - Issue 71

Governance and Opportunity

As the virus runs rampant around us, resilience is becoming a corporate buzzword. The extreme pain of many sectors- such as hospitality, travel and our creative industries reliant on physical human interaction – is only too clear. But the extremity of the pandemic, and its global reach also offers a critical window of opportunity for businesses and boardrooms to re-think their operations and in doing so, raise the bar on better corporate governance.

Whether you think we are seeing an environmental wave or a continuation of the steady march of publicity for environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns in the wake of the pandemic, institutional investors are increasingly in this spotlight, calling for concrete action to combat climate change. Among other things, they are clearly well aware that over half the world's working population is now made up of millennials.

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