Strategic planning and AI oversight for private company boards

More about the podcast

Also in this episode:

• Private company boards struggle with strategic planning, particularly assessing market trends and competitive landscapes.
• Directors can add value by challenging management's strategic assumptions, providing fresh perspectives, and identifying opportunities and risks.
• Most respondents were dissatisfied with their company's scenario planning process, citing the need for a more disciplined approach.
• Private company boards are concerned about AI, feeling they need more education and better governance processes to navigate its risks and opportunities.
• Please see here for the 2025 KPMG Board Leadership Survey

Please see below for a transcript from this episode:

Narrator

Welcome to the Corporate Director Podcast, where we discuss the experiences and ideas behind what's working in corporate board governance in our digital tech fueled world. Here, you'll discover new insights from corporate leaders and governance researchers with compelling stories about corporate governance, strategy, board culture, risk management, digital transformation, and more.

00:00:33:19 - 00:00:38:15

Dottie Schindlinger

Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the corporate director podcast, The Voice of Modern Governance.

00:00:38:19 - 00:00:50:02

Dottie Schindlinger

My name is Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director of the Diligent Institute. And I'm joined once again by my fantabulous co-host Meghan Da, Strategy Leader here at Diligent. Meghan, how are you doing today?

00:00:50:02 - 00:01:00:21

Meghan Day

I'm doing well, Dottie. Enjoying the last gasps of summer here in New York. And, you know, you've been busy. Dottie, I have not talked to you in weeks. It seems like.

00:01:00:21 - 00:01:09:13

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah, it's been a sprint. I mean, I'll be honest, I spent pretty much most of June and all of July on the road, some for fun, but mostly for Diligent.

00:01:09:13 - 00:01:14:22

Dottie Schindlinger

just an amazing set of events with directors and with general counsels.

00:01:14:22 - 00:01:20:11

Dottie Schindlinger

It's been great, but it'sit's been a lot. I've kind of glad to be home, if I'm being honest.

00:01:20:11 - 00:01:29:03

Meghan Day

Well, what's the word on the street? What's, What are our customers? What are corporate secretaries, governance professionals, board members talking about these days?

00:01:29:03 - 00:01:34:18

Dottie Schindlinger

Two words, Meghan. Artificial intelligence. I mean, that is really pretty much the thesum total.

00:01:34:18 - 00:01:42:04

Dottie Schindlinger

it'sactually gotten to be kind of a joke because I went to a conference where my topic, really didn't have a lot to do with that. But of course,

00:01:42:04 - 00:01:48:23

Dottie Schindlinger

we started talking about, you know, what's changing in corporate governance? Two seconds in, AI. All roads lead to AI right now.

00:01:48:23 - 00:01:56:20

Dottie Schindlinger

Megan, it's really the topic everyone wants to talk about. It doesn't matter whether you're trying to talk about things like trade policy and tariffs or

00:01:56:20 - 00:01:57:17

Meghan Day

say tariffs.

00:01:57:17 - 00:02:09:22

Dottie Schindlinger

you're trying to talk about workforce issues, or you're trying to talk about, you know, what's happening with transaction readiness and the IPO and the capital markets. Now everything is all about AI. So without fail,

00:02:09:22 - 00:02:10:15

Meghan Day

is so

00:02:10:15 - 00:02:11:06

Dottie Schindlinger

how about you?

00:02:11:10 - 00:02:14:07

Dottie Schindlinger

What have you been up to? We haven't seen each other in weeks. What have you been up to?

00:02:14:07 - 00:02:34:09

Meghan Day

funny. You say that because it just, I think reflects the rapid pace of change that we always talk about, the cliched rapid pace of change and the uncertainty facing folks. I have been spending my time working on Diligent’s next virtual summit, which is on the big and bold topic of risk and resilience.

00:02:34:09 - 00:02:48:17

Meghan Day

I'm in particular leading a session on everyone's former favorite topic, cyber security. I feel like that's gone by the wayside now that AI is everywhere, although there they are intertwined. I will be talking about cyber risk and AI in the session.

00:02:48:17 - 00:02:49:02

Meghan Day

But

00:02:49:02 - 00:02:49:08

Meghan Day

it

00:02:49:08 - 00:02:54:22

Meghan Day

is going to, I think, shape Up to be a great free virtual event for our customers

00:02:55:00 - 00:02:56:04

Meghan Day

that covers

00:02:56:04 - 00:03:05:10

Meghan Day

the landscape right now and how, you know, I feel like such a nerd every time I say it. How you turn risk into strategic opportunity.

00:03:05:10 - 00:03:16:17

Dottie Schindlinger

Well, and that's such a good point, Meghan and I will say - in addition to talking about artificial intelligence at all these conferences - I mean, one of the things that has become super clear, really, over the last decade, if I'm being honest, is that

00:03:17:00 - 00:03:23:06

Dottie Schindlinger

job of a board member really has become much more about risk management, and that seems kind of odd.

00:03:23:06 - 00:03:31:12

Dottie Schindlinger

I don't think that really was the the job of a board member a decade ago, but it has very much become an exercise in risk oversight and risk management. And

00:03:31:12 - 00:03:43:05

Dottie Schindlinger

to your point, that is not just about avoiding the bad stuff. It's also avoiding the risk of not doing the right things fast enough or soon enough. And that then led to conversations about AI.

00:03:43:07 - 00:03:44:00

Dottie Schindlinger

So

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:09:20

Dottie Schindlinger

but it's true. I mean, I think what directors are really, craving always is how can we see around the corner. And the great thing about AI is that while it can't necessarily, 100% of the time accurately predict what's around the corner, it's pretty darn good at giving you a sense of the range of things that are around the corner and giving you some probabilities as to which one of those things is likely to be the first thing you encounter.

00:04:09:22 - 00:04:28:06

Dottie Schindlinger

And it's better at that than humans are, quite frankly. And so that is exciting for directors, right? The thought that in the very, very, very near future, or if you're a Diligent customer in the present, you can have AI fueled tools that finally help you see around the corner and do it in a credible way with evidence to support it.

00:04:28:06 - 00:04:48:17

Meghan Day

It's really exciting to think about the art of the possible with AI informing scenario planning and analyzing risks that could emerge. And then, as a director, how do you just incorporate that into every meeting, into the conversations you're having with management to help them challenge assumptions?

00:04:48:17 - 00:04:49:02

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah.

00:04:49:02 - 00:05:03:21

Dottie Schindlinger

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Because I think for a long, long time, we've thought about scenario planning as this, like, event that you have to plan for. Like, you have a plan for planning, and you have to kind of gather everybody, and it takes hours, and you've got to have all this prep done.

00:05:03:21 - 00:05:05:09

Dottie Schindlinger

The truth is, we don't need to do any of that.

00:05:05:09 - 00:05:24:01

Dottie Schindlinger

I mean, these AI tools help us do sort of scenario planning on the fly. So it's okay. You can plug in some assumptions, you can ask for some variables, and then you can quickly spit out, here's the range of things that could happen. And that's in a matter of moments. It's not days it's not hours. And that that I think is really powerful.

00:05:24:03 - 00:05:24:23

Dottie Schindlinger

You know, again,

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:30:04

Dottie Schindlinger

We want to be a little bit careful. Right? Because we don't want to advocate using these tools

00:05:30:04 - 00:05:32:02

Dottie Schindlinger

in place of directors brains

00:05:32:02 - 00:05:32:08

Meghan Day

Yes.

00:05:32:08 - 00:05:46:00

Dottie Schindlinger

that is not the point. That is not the goal. No. Instead, using these tools as a thought partner. Right. Using the tools to do the things the tools do well, and then using the director brain for the things that director brain does well.

00:05:46:04 - 00:05:48:01

Dottie Schindlinger

Right. So, for example,

00:05:48:01 - 00:05:56:04

Dottie Schindlinger

coming up with a range of examples of things that have happened in the past, that's something AI just crushes. Just does great, right? Or predicting,

00:05:56:04 - 00:05:57:06

Dottie Schindlinger

you know, what might be

00:05:57:06 - 00:06:07:06

Dottie Schindlinger

likely based on a set of variables and assigning probabilities to a range of things that might be likely. That's something AI can do great. Deciding what the company should do next?

00:06:07:06 - 00:06:14:11

Dottie Schindlinger

That is something that the director does great, and that's not something that I does great. Like AI can give you scenarios, probabilities,

00:06:14:11 - 00:06:21:18

Dottie Schindlinger

can kind of spit out example. You still need your brain to come up with, “Okay, what are we going to do about this?” And quite frankly, that's

00:06:21:18 - 00:06:23:19

Dottie Schindlinger

the really fun part of being the director anyway.

00:06:23:22 - 00:06:40:19

Dottie Schindlinger

Having to go do all that legwork and research to figure out what did? When did we talk about this last? And what did we do last time and what was the outcome? I mean, that's just so laborious and it's very hard to really answer convincingly. AI can do that in a minute or two. And now you can be free to say, “Okay,

00:06:40:19 - 00:06:44:04

Dottie Schindlinger

based on this available information, here's what I'd recommend that we do.

00:06:44:04 - 00:06:49:16

Dottie Schindlinger

And by the way, I've got this friend at this organization that could help us do this thing that I'm suggesting we do.”

00:06:49:16 - 00:06:54:07

Dottie Schindlinger

That's how this will, I think, look in the very, very, very near future or even in the present.

00:06:54:07 - 00:07:00:00

Meghan Day

Love that. Dottie. And this ties up a conversation you just had with our friends over at KPMG.

00:07:00:03 - 00:07:19:22

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah, we wanted to get back with our friends at KPMG because they just did a survey of private company boards. We're always really interested to find out what's happening in the private company space, quite frankly, because it's harder to get data on private companies. They're private, they don't publish all their data. So it's helpful to have, you know, this survey data and sort of find out what is happening.

00:07:19:22 - 00:07:26:11

Dottie Schindlinger

I mean, they were kind of looking at a number of different topics, particularly around strategic planning and scenario planning. And so,

00:07:26:11 - 00:07:30:02

Dottie Schindlinger

let's give that conversation a listen and then come back and we'll talk about it some more.

00:07:37:13 - 00:07:45:10

Dottie Schindlinger

Joining us on the Corporate Director Podcast today is Claudia Allen, Senior Advisor at KPMG's Board Leadership Center. Claudia, how are you doing today?

00:07:45:14 - 00:07:47:22

Claudia Allen

I'm great, and it's a pleasure to be with you.

00:07:47:22 - 00:08:01:06

Dottie Schindlinger

Well, I'm really excited to have you back on the podcast. I know you're a returning champion, and the reason I really wanted to talk to you is because the Board Leadership Center recently conducted a survey of private company boards, and I know that's going to be published very soon.

00:08:01:06 - 00:08:09:00

Dottie Schindlinger

But I'm hoping that we can spend some time today talking about some of the early insights into the findings and what they mean for private company boards.

00:08:09:00 - 00:08:18:02

Dottie Schindlinger

But before we get into that, why don't you start off by introducing yourself a little bit more than your title, and maybe share with our listeners a bit more about what the Board Leadership Center does.

00:08:18:12 - 00:08:30:07

Claudia Allen

Well, the Board Leadership Center is essentially KPMG's thinktank on corporate governance. And by background, I'm a corporate lawyer. I was a partner and co-chaired the corporate governance practice at a national law firm.

00:08:30:07 - 00:08:39:22

Dottie Schindlinger

Fantastic. Well, you're a good person to talk to you then about today's topic, because I know you've just recently conducted this survey that I mentioned of private company boards.

00:08:39:22 - 00:08:46:03

Dottie Schindlinger

So why don't you tell us a little bit more about the topics that were covered in the survey and a little bit about the respondents?

00:08:46:03 - 00:09:13:10

Claudia Allen

Sure. We periodically do survey private company directors, in part because there's so little information available on the private company space. And this time we focused in on strategic planning and scenario planning and how boards can add value, in those areas. And we also ask some questions about AI and technology and investments. And then we heard from about 275 directors.

00:09:13:10 - 00:09:17:21

Claudia Allen

About 40% of them were independent directors. And then,

00:09:17:21 - 00:09:25:07

Claudia Allen

directors of family companies, private equity and founders each represented about 20% of the respondents.

00:09:25:17 - 00:09:35:00

Dottie Schindlinger

So I know you just mentioned that the survey focused, quite a bit on the strategic planning process and on scenario planning. Why was that the focus of this report?

00:09:35:05 - 00:09:57:20

Claudia Allen

Well, you know, when we last did a survey, it was in 2023. And almost two thirds of the respondents said that, the greatest opportunity for the board to improve its oversight was in the area of strategy. And so, given that finding and then that the uncertainty and disruption in the current environment. We thought it made sense to dig deeper.

00:09:57:20 - 00:10:06:22

Claudia Allen

And particularly since some of those changes in the macro environment are affecting business models and causing companies to pivot, with their strategies.

00:10:06:22 - 00:10:17:09

Claudia Allen

And also because, oversight of scenario planning is often identified as a relative weakness by directors of both public companies, as well as private companies.

00:10:17:09 - 00:10:25:21

Dottie Schindlinger

So what did you find were the biggest challenges that were, you know, maybe facing the management team in terms of strategic planning? And did you find anything surprising?

00:10:25:21 - 00:10:38:15

Claudia Allen

We found that the largest, challenges were concentrated in two areas, and each of those was identified by about half of the respondents. And the first was the difficulty in assessing market trends,

00:10:38:15 - 00:10:56:20

Claudia Allen

customer expectations, the competitive landscape. And the second related to scenario planning and the risk analysis process. And I don't think those findings are, particularly surprising, given given the challenging and volatile environment.

00:10:56:20 - 00:10:57:03

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah.

00:10:57:03 - 00:11:13:14

Dottie Schindlinger

I mean, basically, it depends on what time of day you check the news. So, doing scenario planning in that kind of environment is really a challenge. Well, let's talk a little bit more about the findings you had on board members. And obviously this is, you know, the Corporate Director Podcast. We have a lot of board members that listen to the show.

00:11:13:14 - 00:11:23:12

Dottie Schindlinger

And I'd love to find out where did you find private company boards saying that directors can add the most value in the strategic planning process.

00:11:24:02 - 00:11:47:22

Claudia Allen

I think the areas they identified roughly line up with the areas they identified for improvement by management. And there were three primary areas. The first was challenging strategic assumptions. And that makes sense, because part of the role of the board effectively is to constructively challenge management. And in the area of strategy, the goal is to help improve

00:11:47:22 - 00:11:51:02

Claudia Allen

any potential strategy that management presents.

00:11:51:04 - 00:11:52:22

Claudia Allen

And, the second was,

00:11:52:22 - 00:11:57:10

Claudia Allen

providing fresh perspectives on issues like markets, competitors,

00:11:57:10 - 00:12:17:12

Claudia Allen

customers. And I think this is tied to the idea of the board helping management think more broadly and directors bringing to bear their own experiences professionally as well as their insights. And the third was working with management to identify potential opportunities and risks.

00:12:17:19 - 00:12:34:07

Dottie Schindlinger

I know one of the other things you spent some time asking the respondents about was scenario planning. And it got a lot of attention in the results that you shared with us. I thought it was really interesting that the majority of respondents said that they are less than satisfied with management's scenario planning process.

00:12:34:07 - 00:12:35:15

Dottie Schindlinger

Why do you think that's the case?

00:12:35:16 - 00:12:39:15

Dottie Schindlinger

Is it because they're just not doing it? Like what is why do you think they said that?

00:12:39:15 - 00:12:41:00

Claudia Allen

probably a,

00:12:41:00 - 00:13:00:21

Claudia Allen

multiple answers. I think one of the issues, again, is the macro landscape. There's so much volatility and that makes scenario planning even more important than in the past, because it really is tied to, being agile, having contingency plans and being able to, pivot.

00:13:00:21 - 00:13:05:18

Claudia Allen

And, you know, in that regard, you really can't assume that the future will be like the,

00:13:05:18 - 00:13:13:10

Claudia Allen

Past. So management working with the board needs to have a disciplined, what if type scenario planning.

00:13:13:10 - 00:13:25:16

Claudia Allen

process. And you know, that process needs to take into account compound risks in other words, multiple risks coming to bear at the same time, as well as issues like black swan events,

00:13:25:16 - 00:13:29:15

Claudia Allen

those low probability high impact events like Covid,

00:13:29:15 - 00:13:38:08

Claudia Allen

as well as what some people would call, gray rhinos, those slow moving issues that are front and center that suddenly explode like war in the Middle East.

00:13:38:08 - 00:13:47:01

Claudia Allen

And I think, secondly, again, effective scenario planning requires both inside and outside perspectives.

00:13:47:01 - 00:13:54:01

Claudia Allen

And I think that's why when we look at the data, independent directors tend to be more critical than inside

00:13:54:01 - 00:13:55:23

Claudia Allen

directors. And then,

00:13:55:23 - 00:14:03:01

Claudia Allen

in terms of the areas that, that directors believe, are most in need of improvement, they cited a few

00:14:03:01 - 00:14:12:01

Claudia Allen

developing, multiple plausible scenarios, assigning probability and determining impact, developing options.

00:14:12:01 - 00:14:19:15

Claudia Allen

In other words, that ability to pivot and then ensuring that the process is adequately resourced and staffed.

00:14:19:15 - 00:14:21:17

Dottie Schindlinger

That's a really helpful list.

00:14:21:17 - 00:14:41:06

Dottie Schindlinger

I want to talk for a minute about AI. I mean, obviously, big topic of conversation in boardrooms for the last couple of years. And it continues to really be both a major challenge and source of opportunity for companies. So it's a really important agenda topic. How are the private company boards feeling about how their companies are handling AI at this stage?

00:14:41:06 - 00:14:49:22

Claudia Allen

Well, I think overall, directors are signaling that they believe that they, as well as management, need to do more work.

00:14:49:22 - 00:14:54:18

Claudia Allen

and then if we look at what the respondents, said, about a third of them said they were,

00:14:54:18 - 00:15:01:13

Claudia Allen

less than satisfied with the board's understanding of how a company was using and plans to use AI,

00:15:01:13 - 00:15:24:13

Claudia Allen

the risks posed by the technology getting back to your point, and whether the company has the talent to support its use of AI. And less than a third, were satisfied that the company has governance processes in place. You know, for effective, ethical, responsible use of AI. In other words, those guardrails that help mitigate, and prevent risks.

00:15:24:15 - 00:15:26:10

Claudia Allen

And then, you know, as to,

00:15:26:10 - 00:15:32:03

Claudia Allen

technology generally, this really is an area where all directors need to be educated,

00:15:32:03 - 00:15:49:08

Claudia Allen

on an ongoing basis. And I say ongoing because technology is changing so quickly and it's interacting with other technologies. And the idea should be for all directors to be fluent, not experts, but fluent, so that they can understand the risks they have to oversee.

00:15:49:18 - 00:15:56:12

Dottie Schindlinger

I mean, I can't agree with you more. Right. We're big believers in educating the board around key topic areas, especially AI. But

00:15:56:19 - 00:16:11:00

Dottie Schindlinger

I wondered if you could intuit from the results, whether boards feel that they're sufficiently equipped and educated already to help their companies navigate AI? Or were they saying in the report, we need more? What was your take?

00:16:11:00 - 00:16:11:20

Claudia Allen

I think most

00:16:11:20 - 00:16:20:12

Claudia Allen

private company boards feel like they could use more. I think we're seeing more people with, some background in technology on private company boards as well as

00:16:20:12 - 00:16:22:07

Claudia Allen

public company boards. But,

00:16:22:07 - 00:16:28:23

Claudia Allen

to say it's, you know, you have what you need. It's probably too soon because the technology is changing so much.

00:16:29:00 - 00:16:34:17

Claudia Allen

You just think about what happens when AI interacts with quantum.

00:16:34:17 - 00:16:37:04

Claudia Allen

it's, really hard to fathom.

00:16:38:03 - 00:16:49:07

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah. I think that's going to be a really interesting thing to keep an eye on for the future. Claudia, any other sort of final observations about this report, maybe any other stats that really stood out to you that you think are worth sharing with the audience?

00:16:49:12 - 00:16:50:15

Claudia Allen

You know, I think those are the

00:16:50:15 - 00:16:56:06

Claudia Allen

major ones. And I think there's enough there to sort of think through. And I would also say, you know,

00:16:56:06 - 00:17:01:20

Claudia Allen

in addition to surveying the types of private company directors we mentioned, it also includes,

00:17:01:20 - 00:17:05:02

Claudia Allen

other, the company types, like not for profit.

00:17:05:02 - 00:17:21:16

Dottie Schindlinger

Oh, interesting. Well, we'll make sure to put a link to the report on our podcast page as soon as it's live and ready for people to download. But before we let you go today, there's a few questions that we like to ask all of our guests on the show. And I know you've played this game before, so be eager to hear if you've got some new answers.

00:17:21:18 - 00:17:27:14

Dottie Schindlinger

But let's start with the first one. What do you think will be the biggest difference between boardrooms today and ten years from now?

00:17:27:15 - 00:17:43:10

Claudia Allen

You know, I tend to think that directors will have access to higher quality and more real time information, as well as likely deeper analysis and insights as a result of technology. So, in other words, lessening that asymmetry between the board and management.

00:17:43:12 - 00:17:52:15

Dottie Schindlinger

You are preaching to the choir here at Diligence. So, and what's the last thing that you read or watched or listen to that made you think about governance in a new light?

00:17:52:15 - 00:18:12:20

Claudia Allen

Well, I just read Frederick Bachmann's My Friends. It's a novel. And, you know, it focuses a lot on the unspoken dynamics among a group of friends. And, you know, it's those unspoken group dynamics in the board context that can really have a very large impact on culture and the effectiveness of a board. You know, ideally,

00:18:12:20 - 00:18:19:00

Claudia Allen

a board takes the time to examine the culture it has and then whether there are changes it wants to make.

00:18:19:00 - 00:18:25:03

Dottie Schindlinger

I love that even on your beach read, you're thinking about governance. That's fabulous.

00:18:25:03 - 00:18:28:11

Dottie Schindlinger

Well, and, Claudia, finally, what is your current passion project?

00:18:28:19 - 00:18:29:04

Claudia Allen

You know,

00:18:29:04 - 00:18:41:18

Claudia Allen

I'm the Reporter for the Modern Corporate Statute that a majority of states follow, and I'm working on publication of an update that will also include, an excellent explanation of amendments in the last ten years.

00:18:41:18 - 00:18:45:13

Dottie Schindlinger

That's exciting. When? When is that likely to, come to fruition?

00:18:46:04 - 00:18:47:15

Claudia Allen

Hopefully early next year.

00:18:47:15 - 00:18:52:20

Dottie Schindlinger

Awesome. Well, Claudia, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and sharing some of the insights from the report.

00:18:52:23 - 00:18:54:18

Claudia Allen

Well, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

00:18:54:18 - 00:19:01:17

Dottie Schindlinger

We've been joined today by Claudia Allen, Senior Advisor at KPMG's Board Leadership Center. Claudia, thank you for joining us on the show.

00:19:01:17 - 00:19:02:11

Claudia Allen

Thank you.

00:19:12:02 - 00:19:27:10

Meghan Day

Good stuff, Dottie. This is hitting home for me. I'm on the board of a nonprofit, and we just went through some scenario planning exercises at our board retreat. And honestly, my takeaway was we're not doing this often

00:19:27:10 - 00:19:33:11

Meghan Day

enough. You know, that's our job is to to challenge some of these strategic assumptions and bring fresh

00:19:33:11 - 00:19:36:12

Meghan Day

perspective. And so it was an invaluable use of our time.

00:19:36:20 - 00:19:37:10

Dottie Schindlinger

Yeah. You know,

00:19:37:10 - 00:19:51:14

Dottie Schindlinger

she brought up, in the conversation about scenario planning. And we kind of talked about, you know, the need to be more agile, and the need to be able to pivot more quickly. I just don't think that's ever been more true than right now. I mean, honestly, like, we joke all the time, right?

00:19:51:17 - 00:19:58:11

Dottie Schindlinger

Depending on what time of day it is and whether or not, our president has had a good sandwich, trade policy might change. So,

00:19:58:11 - 00:20:00:18

Dottie Schindlinger

you know, we have tosort of figure out, like, okay, how do we keep on,

00:20:00:18 - 00:20:03:15

Dottie Schindlinger

top of things. But she also mentioned, you

00:20:03:15 - 00:20:16:14

Dottie Schindlinger

youhave to still think about black swan events, low probability events that have a big impact, but also the gray rhinos, the ones that are slow moving, that can quickly charge you. You see them, you know they're there, but maybe you haven't spent enough time talking about

00:20:16:14 - 00:20:17:06

Dottie Schindlinger

what we're going to do.

00:20:17:06 - 00:20:23:22

Dottie Schindlinger

And a good example she gave. There is war in the Middle East. Like, we always know there's going to be war in the Middle East, always. I hate to say it, but it's true.

00:20:23:22 - 00:20:30:00

Dottie Schindlinger

But like, what's happening right now with Israel and Gaza and then how that's expanding into the region,

00:20:30:00 - 00:20:31:01

Dottie Schindlinger

that is something that

00:20:31:01 - 00:20:40:23

Dottie Schindlinger

for a lot of companies deserves some time around the board table, you know, particularly if they are involved in any way, shape or form in that region or in any regions nearby and in the adjacent regions.

00:20:41:04 - 00:20:45:05

Dottie Schindlinger

It's something to kind of keep an eye on. So yeah, I thought it was great. And it's also great to,

00:20:45:05 - 00:20:46:00

Dottie Schindlinger

you know, to kind of get

00:20:46:00 - 00:20:48:03

Dottie Schindlinger

that perspective of private companies.

00:20:48:03 - 00:20:58:14

Dottie Schindlinger

I thought it was kind of interesting that private companies not radically different from public companies in many ways. And that's that's reassuring. I mean, you would hope that that's the case.

00:20:58:16 - 00:21:08:12

Dottie Schindlinger

But it is always great to know. Right. And yet it's hard to know because they're private companies. So. Yeah, really, really interesting. I also thought it was really interesting to hear her cite

00:21:08:12 - 00:21:12:01

Dottie Schindlinger

a novel called My Friends by Frederick Bachmann,

00:21:12:01 - 00:21:22:08

Dottie Schindlinger

as her governance read. I haven't read that book yet, but I love the idea of a novel, kind of giving you this primer to group culture and group dynamics.

00:21:22:10 - 00:21:31:15

Dottie Schindlinger

And she's right, you know, those things matter so much in boardrooms and can totally shape the outcome of the conversation. So I may have to pick up that book and give it a read.

00:21:31:15 - 00:21:37:16

Meghan Day

For sure. That reminds me of an article that I was just checking out an agenda about, dealing with a disruptive

00:21:37:16 - 00:21:38:12

Meghan Day

director.

00:21:38:12 - 00:21:38:18

Dottie Schindlinger

Oh

00:21:38:18 - 00:21:39:17

Meghan Day

We've all been there.

00:21:39:17 - 00:21:44:05

Dottie Schindlinger

oh yes, oh many times. It's funny, I do. I teach a course on this too. Right. And there's,

00:21:44:05 - 00:21:50:08

Dottie Schindlinger

kind of my, my eight favorite or I should say my eight least favorite pet peeve behaviors. And quite frankly,

00:21:50:08 - 00:21:56:18

Dottie Schindlinger

I as I always say, we've probably all done them. Not only have we observed them, we've probably all done them.

00:21:56:20 - 00:21:58:07

Dottie Schindlinger

And you know how can you

00:21:58:07 - 00:22:16:03

Dottie Schindlinger

remediate them? And of course, so much of it falls on the head of the poor board chair or lead independent director always and, as another great explanation for why you need good leadership in the boardroom, because they have to be able to wrangle the people that aren't exhibiting good leadership in the boardroom, which might be me.

00:22:16:22 - 00:22:19:15

Meghan Day

At least you're self-aware enough to recognize that, Dottie.

00:22:19:15 - 00:22:30:21

Dottie Schindlinger

Am I though, Meghan? Am I though? I don't know. Well, that wraps up another episode of the Corporate Director Podcast, The Voice of Modern Governance. I'd like to say a few special thank you's first and foremost to our private company expert,

00:22:30:21 - 00:22:43:15

Dottie Schindlinger

Claudia Allen from KPMG, podcast producers Kira Ciccarelli, Steve Claydon and Laura Klein. Our sponsors for the show, KPMG, PwC, Wilson Sonsini, and Meridian Compensation Partners.

00:22:43:21 - 00:22:58:16

Dottie Schindlinger

And most especially, thank you to Diligent for sponsoring this show. If you like our show, please be sure to give us a rating on your podcast player of choice. You can also listen to our episodes and see more from the Diligent Institute by going to diligent.com/resources. Thank you so much for listening.

00:22:59:05 - 00:23:33:23

Narrator

You've been listening to the Corporate Director podcast to ensure that you never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player. If you'd like to learn more about corporate governance and tools to help directors do their job better. Visit www.diligent.com. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.