Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As

By Pearl Zhu

The purpose of the book “Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As “is to share 100 insightful questions for rejuvenating the boardroom to get digital ready. It is important for boards to make invaluable inquiries and take proactive approaches for leading digital transformation seamlessly.

- Question and brainstorm on much-needed oversight and additional rigor to the boardroom composition and succession planning process.

-Practice critical thinking and independent thinking for identifying blind spots, criticizing the strategy constructively and advising management insightfully.

-Practice “out-of-the-box” thinking to ask open-ended questions about IT and how to build an IT friendly and technology-savvy digital board.

-Practice strategic thinking and systems thinking, ask insightful questions, to become the mastermind of digital transformation.

-Make profound inquiries about the future of leadership, constantly question the status quo and set the digital leadership tone to get digital ready.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387122608

Book preview

Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As

Digital Boardroom

100 Q&As

Pearl Zhu

Copyright @2017 Pearl Zhu

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means –whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic –without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punished by law.

ISBN: 978-1-387-12260-8

Contents

Digital Boardroom

Introduction

The Digital directorship Manifesto

Chapter 1

The Digital Board’s Composition Inquiries

Question 1

Does the board have the common Sense? What are the greatest barriers to building and maintaining a high-performing board?

Question 2

What tends to be the biggest gaps and blind spots in achieving and maintaining the right board composition?

Question 3

Which steps is your board taking to position itself for the future?

Question 4

How do you define diversity and embrace inclusiveness? What do you see as the most important types of diversity in terms of filling decision blind spots at the boardroom?

Question 5

How can the corporate board set the tone for encouraging innovation and digital transformation?

Question 6

How willing are directors to make ways for new directors when fresh skills and diversified experiences more closely aligned to the digital strategy are called for?

Question 7

What personal traits are important in digital directors and how will these contribute to the overall performance of the digital board?

Question 8

How will new board members be assessed to determine digital fit with the desired boardroom culture?

Question 9

Generally, what tends to be the biggest gaps and blind spots to close in achieving and maintaining the right board composition and improve the board maturity?

Question 10

How healthy is the relationship between the C-Level executives and the board?

Question 11

What is the board succession plan, and how to do it effectively?

Question 12

How to encourage and recognize individual directors feedback?

Question 13

What steps is your board taking to position itself for the future?

Question 14

What are the practical benefits of board succession planning and how can you maximize those benefits for your company and its shareholders?

Question 15

Change is inevitable, specifically on board refreshment, when and how do you tackle the issue of change in the boardroom?

Question 16

What is the role of the Board vs. management?

Question 17

How does the board composition evaluation process help the board address the need for unique skills through its succession plan? How can you customize those for the unique facts and circumstances of your company?

Question 18

How to overcome the most common succession planning challenges?

Question 19

Do you have the digital expertise needed in the boardroom?

Question 20

Which steps will the board take to develop an effective and inclusive culture?

Chapter 2

The Digital Board’s Digital Inquiries

Question 21

Do organizations have a digital strategy? Do existing functions and business units have a game plan for Digital transformation?

Question 22

How to make good assumptions for digital strategy making?

Question 23

Who owns Digital? Who owns which elements of digital strategy?

Question 24

Which digital impacts have you identified? Which functions are the most impacted by Digital?

Question 25

What is the talent gap when it comes to defining and executing the enterprise-level digital strategy?

Question 26

Is the board sufficiently engaged with long-term opportunities and threats, such as digital transformation, sustainability, and the environment, or global shifts in the balance of economic power?

Question 27

Is the business able to shift the focus of existing people, investments and agendas, or does it need new capabilities, higher levels of investment?

Question 28

Do we have the expertise to identify the strategic and operational changes that need to be made?

Question 29

What are the different digital forces affecting your organization? In what ways are they likely to affect the business and how do you prepare for the challenges?

Question 30

Is your business vulnerable to the increasing speed of changes, new competitors or an erosion of revenues and profits from new customer behavior?

Question 31

Do you customers want to engage with the business in different ways than in the past?

Question 32

Based on the nature of the changes and the urgency, to what extent can the business make the necessary changes with internal resources versus external resource?

Question 33

How to assess the capabilities the business need?

Question 34

Can the Business break old habits and outdated processes to catalyze change boldly?

Question 35

If the digital capability is dispersed, does it have the depth, resources, and cohesiveness to be effective?

Question 36

Does the business possess the ability, desire, and discipline to cope with change along the way, no matter what happens?

QuestIon 37

How to discover the talent for the future business growth and business transformation?

Question 38

Does the Board have a good understanding of the organization’s strategic direction and its digital alternatives?

Question 39

How should the board make laser-focused performance driven agenda?

Question 40

How can high-performing boards prioritize and put significant efforts into risk management?

Chapter 3

THe Digital Board Strategy Inquiries

Question 41

What is the ultimate purpose of the Board of Directors (BoD)?

Question 42

How effectively do the boards engage with management on the company’s strategy?

Question 43

How to solve the paradox of management vs. governance in the boardroom?

Question 44

Does the board articulate its role in supporting a long-term vision for the business effectively?

Question 45

How often is the vision thing discussed at board meetings?

Question 46

What could make your vision cloudy and how to clarify it?

Question 47

Can digital boards help to pinpoint the blind spots of the strategy?

Question 48

Can digital board help to mind the cognitive gaps for expanding digital lens and setting the top leadership tones?

Question 49

Are your leaders using data, rather than gut feeling alone, to make decisions?

Question 50

Are your leaders disposed to actions over analysis and information gathering?

Question  51

Are your leaders considering short-term and long-term opportunities that turbulent times create, as well as managing the risks with the long-term goals of the organization?

Question 52

Is the Board of Directors directing management effectively and appropriately by establishing objectives and defining management parameters limiting management authority?

Question 53

Is the Board of Directors monitoring and evaluating management performance to ensure efficient and effective progress toward objectives and compliance with operational and management parameters?

Question 54

Is the board sufficiently engaged with long-term opportunities and threats, such as digital transformation, sustainability, and the environment, or global shifts in the balance of economic power?

Question 55

What’s the weakest link in strategy execution?

Question 56

How to criticize digital strategy via questioning?

Question 57

How to manage the risks, but identify some opportunities as well?

Question 58

What demand does strategy create for new information technology-enabled capability, and how will you bring that to reality?

Question 59

How can the boards set the right policies to embed innovation in every aspect of the organization, including strategy?

Question 60

How can an ultramodern board help to oversee innovation strategy and set an innovation climate that is sustainable and drives the future growth?

Chapter 4

The Digital Board’s IT Inquiries

Question 61

How tech-savvy are corporate boards these days?

Question 62

How can boards oversee the IT strategy which is an integral component of the business strategy?

Question 63

How can boards help to strengthen the weakest link of the business - either it’s about people or IT, etc.?

Question 64

Can the board help IT set up the right priority to reach the higher level of maturity?

Question 65

Are information, functional or business silos likely to be hurdles as we strive to become more digital?

Question 66

Do we have an incentive structure that promotes collaboration to streamline information flow and achieve its business value?

Question 67

Are information processes and systems compatible with each other and the technologies enabling digital shift?

Question 68

What demand does strategy create for new information technology-enabled business capability, and how will you bring that to reality?

Question 69

What limitations are imposed on business strategy by the constraints of the IT currently used by the company and in its digital ecosystem?

Question 70

What role does IT or the various functional groups play in risk management/governance in general, and in overseeing change and digital transformation of the organization?

Question 71

Which roles do BoDs play in IT oversight in general, and in overseeing changes in the organization?

Question 72

Where, when and what would you expect IT to enter the board conversation?

Question 73

How effective Does the board evaluate IT performance to achieve the business vision and goals?

Question 74

How best to evaluate the Board's performance in utilizing IT to achieve the business purpose?

Question 75

How Important can an Information System be in the digital business success?

Question 76

How to set guiding principles for an IT organization?

Question 77

Who can make better, faster IT decisions?

Question 78

Can IT become the digital brain of the organization, enabling businesses to understand customers deeper?

Question 79

Is IT an enabler or an obstacle to getting things done in organizations?

Question 80

How to Gauge the Success of IT Digital Transformation?

Chapter 5

The Digital Board’s Leadership Inquiries

Question 81

Does the organization see the leader as authentic?

Question 82

Do your leaders have the ability to cope with VUCA new normal today?

Question 83

Are your leaders emotionally aware enough to listen, as well as tell?

Question 84

Can your leaders manage multiple stakeholders inside and outside the organization proactively?

Question 85

Is the next generation of leaders stepping up? Who is choosing to lead in these uncertain times?

Question 86

Is the current leadership asking for help across the organization?

Question 87

does the culture of the organization allow people to lead without authority?

Question 88

What do positive policies look like?

Question 89

Are your leaders balancing short-term, tactical decision making with the long-term goals of the organization?

Question 90

Does the board do enough to audit corporate culture?

Question 91

How to build the ultramodern board composed with Board Directors, who have the advanced mindsets to think further with a clear vision and profound insight?

Question 92

How can boards help to set an innovation climate that is sustainable and drives future growth?

Question 93

Do your leaders have the ability to cope with complexity?

Question 94

Are the people in key leadership roles prepared and able to develop the business strategy and make the necessary operational changes?

Question 95

What leadership development and training do we need?

Question 96

Who are your Strategic thinking Board Directors?

Question 97

Who are your Systems Thinking Board Directors?

Question 98

Who are your Independent Thinking  Board Directors?

Question 99

Who are your Critical Thinking Board Directors?

Question 100

Who are your Change Agent Board Directors?

Conclusion

build an Inquisitive digital board

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Introduction

DigitalBoardroomQA.png

Figure 1 The Digital Boardroom Q&As

Organizations today have to live up with the business dynamic which is uncertain, ambiguous, complex and flux. The overwhelming growth of information is permeating into every corner of the business, and rapid changes are touching every activity, function, business, and industry. The matter of fact is that the changes sweeping the business are hugely disruptive and there is nowhere to hide.

The board of directors as the de facto guardian of modern organizations has an important role to play in steering the organization toward the uncharted water and