Companies evolve in many ways, and the so-called code of change is something that is under constant formulation. How can we assure the stakeholders of a company that we have the readiness and capacity for change? Further, how can we make business change and evolution a working part of a company’s mindset and culture? These are critical questions.

Experience and Perspective
Nothing builds evolutionary thought better than experience with change. People with experience in business change may have gained their stripes through three types of projects:

• Changes in Process and Policy… focusing on a variety of business practices and procedures
• Changes in Business Direction… focusing on alternative business objectives and intentions
• Changes in Enterprise Model… focusing on shifts in business definitions and networks.

The capacity for change, the associated risks of business change, the pathways for change and the intended value of change are key facets of an organizations’ evolutionary value, and each of these has origins in the everyday working experience.

Strategic and Economic Value
Organizations create and capture value through purposeful change and evolution. They gain revenue and resource leverage through changes in their strategic agenda. Those of you serving in management and governance roles have the power to make business evolution a part of the strategic thought and behavior of the organizations and stakeholders that you serve.

One of the more interesting discussions about governance today is the role of the board in strategy. Some companies take this very seriously, while others pass by the subject with only limited energy and insight. For many reasons, boards have stakes in corporate strategic leadership and management that are more and more important to enterprise success.

Oversight Was Yesterday
Today’s more engaged boards play significant roles in the creation and analysis of strategy direction, integration and execution patterns of the companies they serve. Boards temper the overall strategic risk behavior of the company. Boards appraise the realities and conditions of the business, and they help management frame what the company could do going forward, and what they should do near-term and long-term.

“New School” Boards and Strategy
Boards are called upon to share experience, knowledge, judgment and connections. Board members bring perspective and conversation to creative and analytic work on strategy. Boards provoke ideas and appropriate constructive debate on important subjects that reflect the key elements of strategy:

• On Strategy Direction … what kind of business evolution makes sense for the company, and why?

• On Strategy Integration … what resources, processes and capacities shape our ability to move forward?

• On Strategy Execution … what shapes and/or blocks our ability to work the plan and adapt as needed?

Boards govern. Management builds organizations that are prepared and resolved to meet their natural goals in a world that is ripe with risk and opportunity. “New school” boards know their place as an engine for the broader strategic agenda that drives business growth, performance and change.