2025 Governance Trends
As we move into the new year, the corporate landscape faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities. This dynamic environment necessitates a proactive and adaptable approach to corporate governance. Several key trends are emerging that will significantly impact how boards and management teams navigate the complexities of the modern business world.
Number one:
Capital availability from traditional banking sources has expanded to include abundant, flexible private equity sources.
Number two:
Large language models (e.g., Gen AI) have entered the board's zeitgeist, and we are asking management to articulate their vision on its relevance and applicability.
Number three:
ESG and overly “woke” policies are being rebuked by some investors (see the 12/28 New York Post article on NASDAQ). But sustainability remains a corporate commitment.
Number four:
Digital currencies will come back into focus with the promise of regulatory clarity. Few will go to the extreme (MicroStrategy), but your treasury organization may want to investigate.
Number five:
Age policies remain a minority practice. Of the companies that publish their retirement policy, age 75 is increasingly the age shared per the Harvard Review.
Number six:
Activism continues and the majority of boards are savvy enough to now recognize they will need to compromise: see the Elliott/Southwest Airlines, and even more recent agreement of Honeywell to split into two separate companies, aviation and industrial.
Number seven:
United Health Group has alerted boards to their CEOs' vulnerability and the need to consider physical security as well as cybersecurity
4th-Year Medical Orthotics & Prosthetics Student | Passionate About Assistive Technology & Patient Care
1 个月As we step into the new year, it's clear that the corporate world is navigating a dynamic mix of challenges and opportunities. Adapting to change, embracing innovation, and fostering resilience will be key to thriving in the evolving landscape. Looking forward to seeing how businesses continue to grow and evolve! ??
Brand Builder. Creative Director. Founder. ?? Hospitality | CPG | Wine & Spirits
2 个月Great points. Happy new year Betsy!
C-Suite Growth Leader | Scaling Companies & Driving Growth | B2B, SaaS & Enterprise Tech Leader | Sustainability Innovator | NACD Certified Board Director | Sustainable Supply Chain | Building Sustainable Futures
2 个月Always on point Betsy Atkins !
Board Member | Global Chief AI Officer | AI & Innovation Strategy | Portfolio Management | $100M+ Revenue | Exited Founder | Advisor
2 个月Thoughtful write-up, Betsy, thanks for posting. On trend 2, additionally to relevance and applicability, it may be valuable to add assessing future impact of emerging AI capabilities on an organization's current operating model and/or their industry.
Spot on, as usual Betsy. On point number 2, as both business people and ??for ever geeks??, we can expand the topic to pervasive AI adoption (regardless of Gen / non Gen) or even to automation and ??smartification?? (deterministic, rule-based, algorithm based, probabilistic, machine learning…). This is time for pervasive automation and augmentation of human activities, allowing human teams to focus on where they add real value. At Blue Bridge Group AI we focus on ensuring fast and impacting AI Agents and AI assistant deployment, in a very agile was… Having adopted AI ourselves for our AI Integration platform, we ensure fast and cost effective pragmatic deployment of AI agents and AI assistants into corporate workflows. We price per agent or per quantified outcome we could reach. With a very low entry bareer. We are model agnostic and provide full benchmark of available models. Good resolution for 2025: fewer talks about AI, less long term strategic planning and more concrete action! Adopt an AI agent or assistant into your corporate workflows, integrated into your corporate systems! Let’s bridge the gap between AI promise and corporate reality. Happy ??Blue?? year.