This report: “How Today’s Boards are Transforming for Tomorrow” from Corporate Board Member and EY reveals noteworthy data and insights regarding board practices and priorities in response to a rapidly changing business- and macro-environment based on a 2023 survey of 250 US corporate directors across company sizes and industries.
Among the key takeaways for corporate governance professionals: More than 40% of directors would reduce time spent on management presentations if board meetings were two hours shorter, while 33% would reduce social time for directors to get to know each other better. This compares to 13% and 11% of directors who would increase time spent on management presentations and social time with other directors, respectively. As for the former, the report suggests baking management presentations into the board’s pre-read materials so as to not consume live meeting time that may be better spent on substantive discussion.
The top three “wish list” board materials improvements cited by about one-third of directors each consisted of a desire for more interpretation about the importance and meaning of the information presented, improving the ratio of forward-looking information to backward-looking results, and a greater focus on critical key performance indicators.
The foregoing results are consistent with an underlying theme of the report, which is that directors are seeking more time for open discussion among themselves and senior management.
The report includes additional suggested action items in response to the survey findings.