Friday, September 25, 2015

The Importance of Tech on Company Boards

Let me say I have personal experience with this one having served on a board as a technology product expert and having been impacted by a board that did not have a technology expert serving on it.

Here is Wikipedia:

board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization.

Here is the story over on Harvard Business Review (you may need to create a FREE account to read the entire story):

https://hbr.org/2015/09/all-boards-need-a-technology-expert

Here is a snippet from the piece:


A few months ago I decided to look into the professional experience of non-executive directors at the major banks listed in Britain. Like almost every other major industry today, banking relies on hugely complex, enormously expensive technology. So I was curious as to whether the individuals charged with corporate governance would have any more than a layman’s knowledge of IT. I discovered that only one bank had a board member with some direct experience in technology and in that case it was as a sales executive.
...
To ensure that corporate governance includes sufficient oversight of technology, I propose companies follow the following principles:
  • Hire a techie to your board. 
  • Don’t rely entirely on advisers. 
  • Ask tough questions about technology spending. 
  • Understand the cyber threat. 

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

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