The Handbook of Board Governance, 2nd Edition

19Responsive Governance in a Digital World: The Need to Up-Skill

Dr. Elizabeth Valentine

Chief Information Officer of Massey University, New Zealand; and Adjunct Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Dr. Steven De Haes

Dean of Antwerp Management School and Professor of Digital Strategy & Governance at Antwerp Management School and the University of Antwerp

Dr. Anant Joshi

Assistant Professor of Information Management at the Department of Accounting and Information Management at Maastricht University's School of Business and Economics

Introduction

Given the speed of change and advent of emerging technologies, digital transformation is a topic boards are aware of and increasingly grappling with. Making quality and timely decisions during rapid technology change is underpinned by individual competency across the board. A token tech-savvy director is not enough.

While fear of cybersecurity breaches is driving action, the strategic issues of competing in a digital world are driving longer-term competitiveness and corporate sustainability. Technology risk and technology-enabled opportunity are two sides of the same coin, and both need to continue to be an active part of director and senior leader dialogue.

With an ever changing digital landscape, a blend of governance approaches helps board members to build capability in addressing technology challenges. The aim should be for a mix of good governance practices as well as those driven ...