Corporate Culture, Public Trust, and the Boardroom Agenda

In the final mainstage panel discussion of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ (NACD) 2017 Global Board Leaders’ Summit, Richard Edelman, the CEO of communications marketing firm Edelman, spoke with Nicholas Donofrio and Helene Gayle about how corporate culture drives long-term value. He preceded the conversation by offering some sobering statistics. Since 2001, Edelman has researched and measured the trust invested in business, nongovernmental organizations, media, and government by the public. It found that, around the world, only 47 percent of the general population thinks these institutions are trustworthy.

Little more than half (52%) of respondents say they trust businesses. CEO credibility dropped in all countries surveyed, reaching an all-time nadir of 37 percent. Fearful over disappearing employment opportunities, people perceive their current way of life as being threatened, resulting in a rise in protectionist, antitrade sentiments. In addition, looking at survey responses from the investor community, 76 percent of investors indicated that companies should address one or more social issues, ranging from employee education and retraining to environmental issues.

From Edelman’s point of view, business is the last fortification defending public trust in our age-old social institutions. “The board matters,” Edelman said. “Reputation matters. Are you engaged when a company is considering the issues of the day? You have to be. You can’t sit back and let management do this themselves.”

When looking to solve the widespread issue of flagging trust in businesses, directors may do well to take a look at corporate culture. Healthy corporate cultures help drive bottom-line results, increase customer satisfaction, and attract top talent at all levels of the organization. And in the past year alone, media headlines in industries ranging from banking to healthcare to entertainment to automotive manufacturing have highlighted examples of how deficient corporate culture can lead to financial and reputational disaster. As both a source of competitive advantage and as a potential risk, culture is a natural component of boardroom agendas. Yet all too often, it is regarded as a secondary human-resources issue that gets directors’ attention only when a problem arises. In NACD’s most recent public company governance survey, less than half of directors reported that their boards assessed the alignment between the company’s purpose, values, and strategy in the last 12 months.

To upend the common perception of culture as a soft issue, NACD convened directors and governance professionals to develop practical guidance that directors can use to enhance their culture-oversight practices. The resultant publication, The Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Culture as a Corporate Asset, makes ten recommendations on culture oversight and offers associated action steps and tools for directors. Donofrio, a director of Bank of New York Mellon, Advanced Micro Devices, and Delphi Automotive PLC, and Gayle, a director of the Coca-Cola Co., the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, co-chaired the commission.

“In many ways, the issue of trust is aligned with issues of culture,” Gayle observed. “While we have a sense of what our culture is, we haven’t defined it and put those pieces together so that culture can be a unifier across those issues.”

“It truly is not just about [financial] results anymore,” Donofrio added. “It’s about what you did and how you did what you did.” And if board members have concerns about how those results were achieved, it’s time to start asking the CEO and management team questions about the beliefs, protocols, and procedures underpinning the company’s performance. If the chief executive is resistant to examining these issues in an open dialogue with directors—or, worse, is taking positions contrary to the company’s espoused culture and values— that is a sign the company does not have the right leadership in place. As Gayle emphasized, “Creating and managing the company’s culture is the responsibility of the CEO and management team. Culture oversight, and holding leaders accountable for a vibrant and healthy culture, is the board’s job.”

Regarding the rising importance placed on a company’s stance on social issues such as education, the environment, or free trade, Gayle advised that directors frame boardroom discussions on these matters in terms of how a given issue is aligned with the business and take into consideration the communities in which the firm operates and the customers it serves. When Edelman asked if board recruitment should include asking directors about their views on key social issues, Donofrio said that these discussions ultimately tie in to the director-recruitment process, where the criteria for board candidates should include their ability to contribute to and support healthy culture—in the boardroom and across the firm as a whole.

Gayle agreed. “How you relate to society is part of how the company sees itself and how the company expresses its culture. Having a well-thought-out position on how [a particular social issue] furthers the business, how it creates an environment of trust, and how it fosters talent—all those things have to do with culture.”

 

Download The Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Culture as a Corporate Asset for recommendations and guidance to help boards benchmark and improve their culture-oversight practices. NACD members can access the report’s toolkit that contains boardroom discussion guides, sample culture dashboards, and other materials.