Defining Boardroom Activists

  • Reference: IVEY-9B20TB02-E

  • Number of pages: 6

  • Publication Date: Mar 1, 2020

  • Source: Ivey Business School (Canada)

  • Type of Document: Article

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Description

The age of disruption has pushed activism inside the boardroom, where the role of directors is no longer easily defined because changing times require changes in leadership. So, what does an activist director look like? This was the topic of a recent address to The Empire Club of Canada by Rahul Bhardwaj, president and CEO of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), included in this article. The Edelman Trust Barometer—which recently polled 34,000 people in 28 countries on how much they trust core institutions—revealed that for the first time, most people believe that capitalism is doing more harm than good. Directors are entering a new era where all directors must be activist directors and act more “nose in, fingers in,” where appropriate. This makes being the chair especially challenging because the chair will have to lead the redrawing of lines between board and management and free directors to speak their minds. When the sightline of a politician is rarely more than one election cycle ahead, when “unknown unknowns” are not the exception but the rule, who better to think of how companies and Canada itself can compete and win in 2030? The ICD has come to view this shift not as an unwanted task for directors, but as an unprecedented opportunity to step up and play a greater role in the direction of Canadian business and of Canada.