Managing Organisational Blind Spots and Disruption

The topics of organisational blind spots and industry disruption continue to command interest in the boardroom. Recent events hosted by Protiviti offer additional insights on these important topics.

In October, Protiviti hosted two events attended by more than 700 directors and senior-level executives to discuss organisational blind spots and industry disruption. Prior issues of Board Perspectives have discussed these issues, and our intention in facilitating these additional expert panels was to solicit further commentary on these topics of interest to many directors. This issue of Board Perspectives discusses 10 key takeaways from these events:

Adopt an enterprise risk management (ERM) mindset to identify blind spots. A strong focus on ERM emphasizes robust processes for analysing risk, designing cost-effective mitigation activities and evaluating preparedness for the unexpected.

Identify scenarios and gather around the table. Because blind spots can result in the unexpected, tabletop exercises offer a useful process for playing out various scenarios to evaluate organisational preparedness.

Foster more engagement and forward-looking dialogue. Blind spots interest directors because they understand that what they don't know can often be as impactful as what they do know. They also understand that the world is unpredictable. Thus, free-flowing strategic discussions should be welcomed in the boardroom regarding the issues that matter to establish a context for identifying blind spots.