Boards should lead in the focus on sustainability

BOARD leadership in an extraordinary crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic needs to go beyond the usual corporate governance, financial oversight and strategic direction. It requires the board to challenge both the management and the corporation's stakeholders to focus on the new normal that has been thrust upon the entity, and examine what is key to the corporation's survival and sustainability in a post Covid-19 world.

This crisis demands directors pull together their collective wisdom and accumulated experience to guide the corporation into a whole new way of doing things - from operating businesses in a "lockdown" environment to communicating remotely via technology with both management and shareholders. Boards need to actively provide clarity, courage and compassion in navigating the competing pressures on all fronts - from employee health and safety, the corporation's financial liquidity to its post-crisis outlook.

One of the key roles of leaders in such a time is to ask the right questions in relation to a corporation's business sustainability. For this, boards need to focus on these key areas: