In a technology-enabled transformative age, businesses have moved outside of traditional capabilities and continue to explore new business models and ways of working, including in the boardroom. To keep pace, boards need to reshape and reimagine their roles in order to ensure they are future-fit.

In recent years, the average lifespan of the largest US public companies has been declining as a result of economic or technological disruption and in some cases, this is because they have missed opportunities to adapt and innovate.1 Similarly, a significant percentage of companies that made up the UK’s list of largest public companies in the 1980s have either been bought, declined or disappeared. The ones still around are those who have been able to adapt and shape the future.2

But is any of this new? Businesses have always operated in constantly evolving environments. So, what’s significant now?

The accelerating pace of change means that boards must continually evolve to embrace transformation and address effective performance now more than ever. Technological, geopolitical, demographic and environmental changes require boards to do the hard work needed to guide their companies to seize the upside of disruption, manage risk and optimize performance.