AICD and BoardOutlook are entering a long-term strategic partnership to improve governance outcomes across Australia.
Positioning your board to move strongly into the future requires data-driven performance insight. Boards are human, and the bias we might bring can muddy the waters when it comes to how well or poorly outcomes might be viewed.
The AICD and BoardOutlook partnership leverages the AICD’s deep experience and insights in governance — and BoardOutlook’s market- leading technology and board-review software.
“Our purpose here at the AICD is to strengthen society through world-class governance, and world-class governance requires effective boards,” says AICD CEO Mark Rigotti. “One of the ways to be an effective board is to evaluate and improve. The BoardOutlook alliance will help boards do that with a data-driven, technology-enabled approach.”
Access to insights into a board’s governance and performance will ultimately improve that board’s effectiveness and raise governance standards. BoardOutlook’s technology will deliver a scalable and data-backed board effectiveness diagnostic, developed and delivered in partnership with the AICD.
“It’s crucial for board performance to be data- driven in today’s environment, because there is just so much that boards are being asked to do,” says BoardOutlook CEO and co-founder Steve Pell. “The obligations and the remit are so large, it’s not possible to do everything simultaneously. So board performance does become, in a way, a prioritisation exercise. If you’re asked to prioritise, you need data to make those decisions in an educated manner.”
Board Insights
The AICD and BoardOutlook are offering an online subscription, known as Board Insights. This provides a comprehensive online review to help determine board effectiveness and identify areas with scope for improvements.
“This partnership opens up new services for members and clients that substantially extends on the AICD’s purpose in improving governance outcomes across Australia,” says Jenny West GAICD, the AICD’s general manager of engagement. “We have run an extensive pilot process with the BoardOutlook technology and have validated that this brings substantial benefit to the client experience, accessibility and insights delivered in a scalable manner.”
Melbourne-based BoardOutlook operates globally, with clients in Australasia, the UK, North and South America, and the Middle East. In November 2023, it launched its first international office in London with multiple FTSE 100 clients.
“At BoardOutlook, we’re really excited about this partnership with the AICD,” says Pell. “We’ve got a great collection of tools that have been successful across Australia and many other parts of the world, but this is a partnership that will enable us to take those tools to the broader Australian market, starting with Board Insights.”
Constant improvement
Many boards might not have otherwise been able to access these tools. Pell notes that the boards that are running these processes every year are performing better, improving more, having healthier conversations and showing more alignment between board and management.
“If you’re not measuring, how do you know you’re improving over time in so many areas — from strategy, to board composition, to risk management?” asks Pell.
Sitting in a boardroom can be a lonely exercise. There is not a lot of context on what similar organisations are focused on, what their challenges might be and what makes them successful. Data can help boards to understand what they are struggling with and where their focus needs to be.
“We bring such great strengths to market in terms of technology, data and a package of software and solutions that will enable boards to be better, now and into the future,” says Pell. “We’re helping boards to overcome governance issues and to improve their performance over time.”
The platform is built around a technology enabled toolkit to give an accurate diagnosis of where your board’s performance is today. Continuous data-driven updates give clarity around where the board should be and how to integrate the broader experience into its thinking.
“We’re excited about what this alliance can do in terms of making access to board effectiveness tools more available to more companies,” says Rigotti. “These tools will be more data-driven, more technology-enabled and benchmarked across a range of different sectors and segments of the community.”
This article first appeared under the headline 'Top Gear’ in the August 2024 issue of Company Director magazine.
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