Getting Your Board Ready for the Future: The Evolving Role of a Company Secretary

"Corporate governance has become a topic of broad interest. As global businesses are plagued with scandals, corporate failures and ethical misconducts, the debate over the roles of company boards intensifies. Not surprisingly, there is now a renewed focus on corporate governance – better structures, calls for greater independence of directors, more rigorous oversight, to name a few."

As a result, a large amount of time is spent on scanning historical activities instead of focusing on strategic and future prospects of the company. With rapid technological, social and environmental change, are directors equipped with the right skillsets and mindset to navigate the unexpected? Board evaluation is a forward-looking exercise, besides driving improved leadership, better performance and boosting investors’ confidence in the company. Company Secretaries play a crucial role in the initiation of meaningful and effective board evaluations. In their central role, they need to drive the process with the Nomination and Remuneration Committee Chair and/or the Board Chair and facilitate the execution of the entire process - from inception to the delivery of the final report to ensure sustainable effectiveness and performance of boards. They can further contribute towards the board-chair relationship, board processes, and dynamics and be seen as a valued advisor in the corporate governance structure and framework of the company. When successfully administered, an evaluation can help steer boards towards enhancing their organisations’ capacity. Having an impactful assessment consists of more than just a ‘box-ticking’ exercise and requires an in depth analysis of the different board relations within a board, identifying oversight matters and aligning them into line of sight of the board, identifying and mitigating disruption that the board would face while empowering boards to be agile and innovative in a continuously evolving environment. The analysis must also, draw out the issues faced by the board so that remedial action can be taken and this is only achieved through meaningful, candid and confidential one-on-one interviews. So how are today’s leading boards evolving their evaluation to enhance the effectiveness of boards and how are the companies communicating to stakeholders about their board evaluation process? The disclosure of the board evaluation practices and outcomes are equally as crucial. Last year’s Corporate Governance Monitor 2019 by the Securities Commission Malaysia highlighted that the explanations provided by companies on the adoption of the board evaluation practice lacked details, particularly in relation to the outcomes of the board effectiveness evaluation, discussion on key strengths and weaknesses, and measures that were taken to address them. Join Wee as he shares his experience on what a meaningful board evaluation will look like and the importance for Company Secretaries to familiarise themselves with the various evaluation methodologies and approaches used in order to achieve a desired outcome. Learn how you can utilise the findings to add value to the board process and provide a practical roadmap for the company’s long term success.

Learning Outcomes

• Define what is an effective Board Evaluation
• Identify the benefits that you can gain from a meaningful Board Evaluation
• Learn about the best practices for evaluation disclosures