Corporate Governance

Even as companies deal with the disruptions brought about by the pandemic, there are many opportunities to ride in this dangerous wind. As black swan events of this nature become more common, companies must embed strategic thinking into their business models to be future-ready.

A Bloomberg columnist’s criticism of Singapore boards is not borne out by the numbers or cross-country comparisons. But he raises several relevant points for Singapore directors to take a good hard look at ourselves and our roles.

Like most Commonwealth countries, Singapore has a one-tier governance structure that puts executive and non-executive directors together on a single board. In contrast, countries like Germany separate the two types of directors. Some nonprofit organisations in Singapore have found the two-tier model useful.

Corporate governance is crucial, but a core difficulty is the corruption of power. The ensuing rules to safeguard against wrongdoings have focused too many boards on compliance and not enough on their performance role of value creation.