NEW WORLD, NEW THINKING
Kategorie: Allgemein
Continuity in german boards –
Intro
In the last week there was an important decision for the continuity in German boards: The participation of employees in the German Boards is compatible with European Law. so the continuity of the German composition of boards is guaranteed.
history
Since 1965 in Germany are the half of the members of the board sent by employees. The German Konrad Erzberger saw in this very special law a discrimination: Only German employees are able to participate 
this law. Employees of other countries aren`t represented with this law. With this commencement the petitioner got the wrath of the German unions: They are often financed by the fee, their members got by participating the supervisory board.
In the case of TUI the law was called: Is this participation legal with European law? The German Courts sent this case to the European Court. Since Friday, the result is published: The German Law is compatible with the European law. The experts saw this in may this year in their report, and now the European court has followed this view: It is quit right, that different countries of the European Union follow different ways for stakeholders and law for companies:
In that context, EU law does not, in the field of representation and collective defence of the interests of workers in the management or supervisory bodies of a company established under national law, a field which, to date, has not been harmonised or even coordinated at Union level, prevent a Member State from providing that the legislation it has adopted be applicable only to workers employed by establishments located in its national territory, just as it is open to another Member State to rely on a different linking factor for the purposes of the application of its own national legislation.
The Association for German Leadership has appreciated this decision:
The cooperation with employee representatives in the supervisory boards has proved successful for the majority of specialists and managers in Germany.
explained the president Ulrich Goldschmidt. The German participation is a great advantage for the location of Germany and has proven in the past 52 years. Now the European Court has obtained legal certainty.
We don`t need a CDO
Intro
I`ve read a great article by Julie Teigland on LinkedIn. In her main oppinion she suggested, that a CDO would help, to getting over the digital Transformation. In my opinion, a CDO can be a first step, not a solution. I have a tweet about it with similar content:
Why we don`t need a CDO
There are some Arguments for a CDO. I think, the most important one is, that a Person in an organizational structure is responsible for all the activities, to make a Company great for the future. But can one Person load such a Job? I think, the whole Management is responsible to transform a Company for the future: If there is one, the Management is saying “This is the Job of the CDO”.
To transform the whole Company, all are responsible: Board, Senior and Middle Management. The digital Transformation is not only an IT Job: Think about uber or AirBnB: These are old Business Process, but with a new Point of View: Customer Experience. The last decades, the same processes were optimized, again and again. But to have great new ideas, the way of thinking has to Change. A new Mindset in all Management hierarchies are necessary /(German Blog by Matthias Wrede). Especially the Middle Management is trained for years, making Solutions for small Problem. Thinking in new ways has to be learned again. But this is trainable, like thinking as kids (German Blog of Easy Leadership, aka Marcus Riesterer). The next years, the culture of mistakes must be changed, too: To learn the new process Thinking will be a way of trial and error. Nice to read the Roadmap by capgemini. So courageos Leaders must take the first steps. The normally employees aren`t able to Change the way of thinking. This ways can bring new ideas for creating ways of customer satisfaction. Big Data or IoT are only Tools, to improve this, not the epic Centrum of the digital Transformation.
But I don`t want to Version contradict Julie Teigland completely: A CDO is able to drive the digital Transformation in an organizational culture and bring the Spirit of New Work to all departures. So should be “Service” not only a departure anymore, it should be the Driver for new products or ideas. Think about it: The digital transformation Needs Attention by the whole Management, not only by a CDO.
Now we want you!
We don’t just certify, teach, and coach people how to become to Non-Executive Directors – we create them… Now we want you!
Making Corporate Boards More Effective
Since we have joined so many board seminars, we like to give a recommendation.
The Harvard Business School is offering again its “Making Corporate Boards More Effecitve” program. It is one of the best programs we have ever attended. The next course is starting on the HBS Campus at 26th of July and will cost $9,250. The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
HBS European Alumni Summit – May 2017 in Berlin
Practical advice regarding the German corporate governance system
Professor Bernd Schichold is one of the leading figures in all questions regarding the German supervisory board affairs. Regularly he is writing in his blog about the newest developments. One of the most important developments is the DIN SPEC 33456, since non German speaking supervisory board members often need a reference point and practical advice with regard to the German corporate governance system.
Below you can find an abstract of the DIN SPEC 33456 „Business Process Guidelines for Supervisory Boards and Independent Directors“, which might be helpful:
„The DIN SPEC includes guidelines for organizational processes and business processes in oversight bodies such as supervisory boards, advisory boards and boards of directors. The guidelines are set to impose a reference model and a process map of the supervisory board for routines that occur regularly as part of the monitoring work. Potential users and target groups of these guidelines are advisory boards of various companies, especially medium-sized companies, family businesses, foundations and public companies. The reference model provides sufficient degrees of freedom and thereby flexibility of an enterprise customization. The DIN SPEC primarily is supposed to provide a business perspective of the regular running routine work of supervisory bodies.“
If you need more information, please get in touch with Bernd Schichold (one of the idea generators and authors of this practical guideline for supervisory boards) directly – or send us an email.
We need more couragous Leaders!
Intro
New Technologies, the international crisis and other factors has shown: We need more leaders, less managers. But what is the difference? A short, but great Synopsis, I`ve seen:
Courage for Leadership
We don`t have a solution for all the Problems. A new Generation of Leadership, based on Courage and Integrity, can bring all of us the solution:
1. We Need responsible Leadership
- the ability to encourage and motivate people, employees and customers
- to guide and coach them in good and bad times on their way to the common goal
- to be successful jointly and have better results as a team
- The key factors are – trust of the people in the right leadership – adjusted approaches of „right“ leadership in different situations – a responsible guideline for social responsibility.
- other important factors are personal qualities like charisma, willpower, trustbuilding, strenghth, courage and decisiveness
- a responsible crisis management – i.e. to be cool headed in critical situations, but with authenticity and integrity
2. We Need the leadership of tomorrow!
- after the age of number-oriented management decision making follows the era of business culture driven leadership
- What is competence? today: fact oriented decision maker tomorrow: enabler and engineer of decision making processes
- What is character? today: compliance tomorrow: personal integrity
- What is culture? today: apply the company values tomorrow: business culture creation and formation
3. New role of the business leaders
- Ethical behavior not only as individual, but as well as institution
- incentivation i.e. boni longterm and related to sustainable results
- decision making processes adjusted to ethical values (i.e. no discrimination, „Red Flags“)
- CEO and leadership team as „role models“ demonstrate christian values
- appreciate human capital
- fairness for all stakeholders
- sustainable entrepreneurship
- show responsibility and reliability
- open and transparent communication
- social engagement and common good-Engagement
- Pope-encyclica „Laudato Si“ = „our planet is our common house“
Extro
This Blogpost based on a presentation by Stephan Werhahn, board member of the German IoD.
The challenge of the Borads to stand up against Trump
The CEO’s and Board members of the leading companies of the US and the world do have a new challenge: how to deal with Trump who may be destroying your long-term company future. Going for the short-term win and submissively obey the presidents will? Or going for the long-term win and offer resistance?
In an interview with Harvard Business Review, former U.S. treasury secretary Larry Summers said: “If CEOs who employ hundreds of thousands of people are not in a position to speak truth to power, who is going to be in a position to speak truth to power?”
Harvard Professor Bill George recommends a strategy:
- Prepare for the jobs of the future.
- Stay focused on realizing your mission despite the uncertainty.
- Build on your strengths.
- Adapt your tactics, not your strategy.
- Don’t abandon globalization
For more details and to read his valuable guideline have a look at his LinkedIn post.
Board agenda 2017: Stop making lists!
Intro
Yesterday I read the Board Agenda 2017, top priorities for boards and audit committees in Europe, published by EY [Ernst & Young]. This Publication contains eight important items for the board in 2017:
- Geopolitical risks: About Trump, Brexit and another political things, changing the world.
- Digital Transformation: Is your corporation ready for the digital transformation?
- European Union (EU) audit reform: This part is exciting for european boards: Is your board ready for Audit Reform?
- Tax risk: About the risks, paying to much taxes.
- Corporate compliance and culture: How developed is your corporate culture?
- Talent Management: Where to find new talents? Does your corporation have a good will?
- Corporate social responsibility: Does your corporation meet the regulatary framework, or are you working ethical?
- Investor Relations: How does your corporation comunicate with its investors?
This list is great work and has all the items, I would talk about, too. But I miss one (main) Topic, which has strategic implications: The relationship between all topics!
Stop making lists!
Lists can help: They make one feel, to meet all the topics. But they can pretend a wrong safety. The items, EY has correctly identified, must be in a relationship. In this case, a visualization could look like this:
When we take a look at the digital transformation, it is one of the main topics, the corrporations are concerned about. To reach new goals, they need an innovating company culture, which promotes individuals. Additionally a good failure culture would be helpful. No director is able to command creativity (They can…. but it wouldn`t help). It is only possible, to build up a correlated company culture.
The tasks are making a framework for surviving the changes, coming the next years. A list point like “Digital Transformation” suggested, it would only be a release. Remember:
But there are more implications: the war for talents has already started. The companies can try, to hire them. But without the right support, the talents will not stay.
So the board has two main topics in the next years to work at: to handle the techniacally tasks (like the European Union (EU) audit Reform) and helping to transform the company in this way, that we have a culture, everybody wants to stay. And this culture must be live by the top management and not to be commanded.
German version can be found here.