Boards Beyond Borders: Global Panels at NACD’s Board Leadership Conference

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world—to echo a movie title from a half century ago—but it’s also a good one when nations cooperate. This is the big takeaway from the global track at NACD’s 2014 Board Leadership Conference, where representatives of nine nations convened to create a global village and to host a series of three staged programs.

The village itself featured colorful, information-rich booths where representatives from the embassies and consulates of Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, and the Russian Federation greeted trade-minded directors seeking to expand their knowledge.

In addition, the village featured a booth for the Global Network of Director Institutes (GNDI), a network of 12 director institutes (including NACD) and one confederation (ecoDA, in Europe). The GNDI booth offered an opportunity to meet incoming GNDI Chairman Stan Magidson, CEO of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) from Canada; Paul Chan, the acting CEO of the Malaysian Alliance of Corporate Directors; and Simon Arcus, manager, Governance Leadership Center, Institute of Directors, New Zealand. Vicki Jordan, vice president of marketing, ICD, joined me in staffing the booth—a truly appropriate choice, as Canadians/les Canadiens are global by nature. For proof, see this new video produced at Laval University in Quebec (featuring yours truly) created for an exciting new ecoDa educational program also held in October.

The Global Village was home to a series of panels in the Global Track at the Conference. This blog offers takeaways for these dynamic panels.

Global Panel 1: Trade and Business in North America

Moderator: Dean A. Pinkert, vice chairman, U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). Panelists: Gilles Gauthier, minister, Economic Affairs, Embassy of Canada; Francisco J. Sanchez, chairman, CNS Global; former under secretary at the Department of Commerce.

1. To grow, consider going global. Eighty-five percent of world economic growth is occurring outside the U.S. The U.S. has bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements with 20 countries. Support for free trade is rising, according to Gallup polls.
2. Know your trade agreement. A well-known example of a free trade agreement is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now 20 years old, which has been a success for all the economies This is why it is important to support the new and emerging free trade agreements of other regions namely: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
3. Give bipartisan support to good trade agreements. Although free trade is often associated with the pro-business Republican party and opposition is often associated with the pro-union Democratic party, good trade agreements such as NAFTA get bipartisan including union support—especially considering that one can always seek a trade remedy to cure imbalances.
4. Think beyond tariffs. If trade unfairness arises, a variety of trade remedies are available. Tariffs—charging duties on imports—are only one way to correct imbalance. Even more constructive is regulatory cooperation and harmonization of standards.
5. Tell your company’s story so stakeholders and the public will understand. Reatha Clark King, chair of the NACD board of directors, noted that boards need to do a better job of ensuring that companies are more forthright in disclosing information about their global nature: where they are headquartered, where they employ people, where they source their products, and where they sell their products, among other topics. By revealing their global nature, they will build more informed support for free trade.

Global Panel 2: Translating Corporate Culture Across Borders

Moderator: Dennis Whalen, partner-in-charge and executive director, KPMG’s Audit Committee Institute. Panelists: Orlando Ashford, director, ITT Corp., Executive Leadership Council, and Streetwise Partners; senior partner, Mercer; Michael Marquardt, director, Commonwealth Trust Co., Delaware Theatre Co., American Cancer Society (South Atlantic), and CEO, Global Compass Strategies Inc.

1. Live “la vida local.” Many companies think locally and act globally, when they must do the opposite. As a company, value your local talent; as an individual, live your local life. Companies acquiring outside their borders used to send in executives from headquarters. Now, they are more likely to hire and promote locals—including expatriates who want to stay longer on an assignment.
2. Check your culture and mark your calendar. One of the best examples of culture arrogance is when we are oblivious to non-U.S. national holidays. Not all are marked on global calendars. For example, don’t try to schedule a meeting in Berlin on November 9 – when the fall of the Berlin wall is commemorated.
3. Focus on outcomes. When two companies get combined, focusing solely on process may result in getting buried in protocol. Instead, focus on desirable outcomes—for example an effective workplace. This was the case for Orlando Ashford when he learned that as a matter of policy, a particular non-U.S. division of a U.S. company had collected information on blood type, then run a blood drive for an employee’s relative, and published the results, causing some disharmony at work. He changed the policy.
4. Insource HR. It may be tempting to ask a local company to hire your talent but it is worth your own time. While professional support can be valuable, human capital is too important to leave entirely to third parties.
5. Know your agents. Enacted some four decades ago, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) does hold companies—and, by extension, boards—accountable for certain internal controls. Directors should ask for assurance from management that the people who are involved with selling the company’s products and services act within the boundaries of the law.

Global Panel 3:  The Global Start-Up Revolution

Moderator: Andrea Bonime-Blanc, chair, Epic Theatre Ensemble; audit chair, Counterpart International; CEO and founder, GEC Risk Advisory. Panelists: Andre Averbug, founding partner, Rankpad Consulting, Inc.; Mark Little, CEO and founder, Storyful; Bernard Moon, cofounder and partner, SparkLabs Global Ventures.

1. Be “hyper-transparent.” In the new economy, “reputations can be lost or improved overnight.” Learn what the market wants to know about you and provide that information as soon as possible.
2. Look around you. Any place and every place can fuel a start-up revolution. Berlin, Dublin, Nairobi, Seoul, and Tel Aviv are all current examples. Places with a long-established rule of law are ideal for startups, but no place is off limits. In these unexpected places, new ideas are finding the capital they need to become viable businesses—often in areas that do not require a large amount of funds to launch. (Cost of entry in technology-based businesses is generally lower than in traditional industries that require manufacturing plants, for example.)
3. Respect Silicon Valley—and look beyond it. Silicon Valley is rightly known for the entrepreneurial ecosystem so important in the second phase of growth—a system that includes both financial capital (venture cap, angel investors, banks) and intellectual capital (fellow innovators, universities), not to mention savvy law firms. But such ecosystems are evolving elsewhere as well.
4. Fail better. Don’t be afraid to start a business that may fail. Panelists noted that in the U.S., bankruptcy laws can be relatively forgiving. In locations where the bankruptcy laws are harsh, changes may be under way, and adaptations are possible. Also, remember that you need not go it alone. In a climate where the new form of research and development is mergers and acquisitions, a possible option may be to sell your start up to a larger company before a lack of funds brings the company to a halt.
5. Give back. If you develop a successful startup, consider investing at least part of it in other new ventures, the way Google and Facebook founders have done. You can keep the global start-up movement going. Vive la revolution!