Digital connectivity and technological progress have presented us with opportunities for collaboration like never before. At the same time, we face unprecedented challenges from confronting climate change to navigating cutting-edge innovations. To harness these opportunities and overcome the obstacles before us as individuals and as a collective, we must prioritize good governance.
Strong governance can pave the way to a better future by fostering trust, accountability, and a clear sense of purpose, even through turbulent economic and social times. For its work in this critical area, the winner of this year’s Lawrence D. Eicher Leadership Award (LDE) for excellence in standards development is technical committee ISO/TC 309 on governance of organizations. The committee will be honoured at the ISO Annual Meeting in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, taking place on 9-13 September.
Good governance: the foundation for a better world
Weak governance is more than a hindrance, it poses grave risks – for both organizations and the communities they operate in. It erodes public trust, damages reputation, and can lead to substantial financial losses as well as legal repercussions. Most critically, poor governance impedes progress towards our most critical collective endeavours, like reducing inequality and protecting our environment.
Moreover, good governance is the cornerstone of organizational success. Effective oversight and the ability to adapt to challenges are essential to build an organization that can stand the dual tests of time and change. For employees and the public, good governance fosters accountability, ensuring that organizations are responsible to both their stakeholders and their public.
By providing business leaders and policymakers with the tools to perform effectively, behave ethically and be responsible stewards, ISO/TC 309 has done the difficult job of clearly signposting when an organization’s governance is up to the task before it – and when it is faltering.
A common “good”
But with organizations ranging in size from an industrious sole founder to workforces of hundreds of thousands, across locations, sectors and industries, how can we begin to create a universal definition of good governance? To answer this question, the ISO committee identified one thing that all companies, irrespective of size or speciality, have in common: their purpose.
Whether selling food or building software, all companies are working toward a longer-term vision. For the vast majority of companies, this has always been profit; the more revenue a group produces, the more successful they are deemed to be. The experts participating in ISO/TC 309 recognize that a sustainable future calls for a shift in focus, transcending revenue to include people and planet. Whether it’s combatting climate change, supporting local communities or addressing social inequalities, an organization needs to also be a force for positive change.
Good governance should stem from the answer to this question: What core problems are they solving for people and planet, without benefiting from, or profiting from, creating harm? Chair Kevin Brear, Vice-Chair Dr Axel Kravatzky and Committee Manager Mike Henigan have a clear answer:
It’s not meant to be that you do everything for everybody. But you identify one strategic contribution and you maximize that.
Beyond identifying this purpose, it’s vital that organizations have a clear understanding of what operating ethically looks like in practice. To this end, the committee has created guidelines that give organizations a set of tools and standards that support the critical work of executing good governance, covering compliance, whistleblowing, anti-bribery, conflicts of interest, and more.
Congratulations to all the experts of ISO/TC 309 for their commendable work!