KUALA LUMPUR: Company boards must take stock of their effectiveness and ability to work as partners to senior management to effectively lead businesses into the future while upholding corporate governance excellence, said Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM) president and CEO Michele Kythe Lim.
She said the rapidly shifting environment and consumer expectations, compounded by climate change and technological risks, geopolitical volatility, heightened regulatory requirements and scrutiny, continue to challenge boards, directors and senior management of companies.
“As the national institute of directors for Malaysia, ICDM ensures the facilitation of hard-hitting conversations and engagements on risks and challenges facing companies today and to prepare them to be good partners to senior management, when boards, directors and senior management are aligned, with mutual trust, they can successfully deal with challenges, perform better as a company, respond to greater regulations, cost and complexity in the coming years,” Lim said at a media briefing today titled “Step Up or Step Out: Leading and Embracing Proactive Governance in an Era of Change” hosted by the ICDM.
She said the institute’s focus is to continue being the benchmark of corporate governance standards and be the holistic platform to professionalise and support the board and director’s ecosystem.
“Acknowledging the world’s ongoing evolution, technology and climate change have massively disrupted the status quo, and leaders need the foresight to recognise the need for self-development, deliberately direct their learning, that they are informed and knowledgeable, while able to be good partners to senior management,” said Lim.
The institute has been advocating transformative change for governance excellence, with the initiative that includes the institute’s advocacy for external board effectiveness reviews every three years for large companies as per the practice recommended under the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2021.
ICDM has seen an increasing demand for its Board and Directors Effectiveness Evaluation, an assessment framework for a balanced view of the board’s performance, indicating a heightened cognisance among corporate leadership to heed the call to improve board effectiveness in exercising their oversight role.
Lim said ICDM is deliberate in its emphasis on addressing key threats faced by boards, therefore boards must adopt sustainable business practices and recognise that the business choices they make have an impact not only on companies but also on the communities and the environment in which they operate.
