Theme: Finance & Audit for Boards

Who ultimately determines the strategic direction of a corporation? The board, the CEO, the strategy department, the strategy consultants, or perhaps even artificial intelligence?

The obvious answers are tempting, but incomplete. Not the board alone, even though it carries central responsibility for strategic direction and oversight. Not the CEO, although management typically develops and implements strategy. Not the strategy department, although it may structure the process. Not the consultants, although they may sharpen the analysis. And not artificial intelligence, although it is playing an increasingly important role in the strategy process.

All of these actors may shape strategy, refine it, and translate it into decisions and action. Yet the most fundamental strategic expectations should originate one level higher: with the owners.

Whether the owner is a family, the state, a foundation, a private equity investor, or a dispersed group of shareholders, ownership inevitably carries expectations. Owners have views, explicit or implicit, about why they hold the company, what they expect from it, how long they intend to remain invested, which risks they are willing to accept, how much capital they are prepared to provide, and what they ultimately understand by value creation. These expectations form what can be described as an owner strategy.