Initiatives

ro:bo:ards

ro:bo:ards focuses on the role of data and artificial intelligence in corporate governance. The initiative aims at empowering boards to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence to create economic, social, and technological value.
Themes
Risk & Compliance for Boards | Strategy & Innovation for Boards
Contact

  • Prof. Dr. Michael Hilb

    Chair, Board Foundation

Checklist for Board Members

  • How important is data from the following areas in your company: Finance, customers, production, suppliers, market, research, operations, employees, etc.?
  • How do you use data from the following areas in your company: Finance, customers, production, suppliers, market, research, operations, employees, etc.?
  • How intensively are data topics discussed at the executive and BoD level?
  • How much are different data used to make decisions at executive and BoD level?
  • Is data explicitly part of your strategy? 

  • How much is your industry driven by data-driven vendors?
  • How involved are you in data-driven platforms/ecosystems (alliances/partnerships, etc.)?
  • How much is customer interaction driven by data?
  • How much is the production process/supply chain influenced based on data?
  • How central is data as a component of your service/products?

  • Data understanding: Do you have a consistent definition of data?
  • Data investment: Does the company have the resources to invest in data?
  • Data capabilities: Is there a will to create value for the business from data?

  • Products: What data-based offerings (products/services) do you offer to provide value to customers and for which customers are willing to pay?
  • Processes: Have you defined business strategies based on artificial intelligence?
  • Markets: What role does data play in your sales and delivery channels?

  • Operational data handling: Are your data assets secured against unwanted access (defense against attacks, protection against data theft)?
  • Socially accepted handling of data: Is there social acceptance in your business area for companies to evaluate and use data and information?
  • Compliance with legal regulations: Are you aware of legal regulations on data security and do you comply with them?

  • Data storage policy: Do you follow a dedicated data storage approach (e.g. cloud-based, own servers, country-specific)?
  • Artificial intelligence: Have you formulated a dedicated approach to artificial intelligence?
  • Data quality policy: Do you formulate your data quality requirements differentiated by type of data?

  • Platform strategy: Have you developed a decided platform strategy for your company? Are there opportunities/threats for you or your partners to expand their business or threaten business units?
  • Data platform: Have you identified relevant data platforms and do you plan to work with them?
  • Partnerships: Have you identified relevant partner companies whose data is critical to your success?

  • Data transparency: How are data standards defining access rights, viewing, processing, etc., defined and implemented?
  • Integrated data portfolio management (purchase, database maintenance, sale of data): Do you regularly assess your data portfolio based on defined criteria?
  • Data assessment and reporting approach: Do you regularly assess your data based on defined standards, and are the assessments part of your reporting?

  • Policies: Have you formulated a data protection policy and is it followed?
  • Culture: Is your data protection and security culture actively addressed?
  • Responsibilities: Have you appointed a data protection officer and a data security officer?

  • Data architecture: Have you defined a clear data architecture (master data, metadata, …) and is it followed?
  • Processes and responsibilities: Are the processes and responsibilities defined to ensure data quality? Is knowledge available regarding data collection, data content, and data cleansing? Are there specialists who can interpret cleansed data?
  • Data inventory: Have you assessed and documented your data for usefulness and quality?

  • Data standards: Are data standards established and followed within the company?
  • Assurance of access to data: Is access to data secured, traceable, and regulated in a structured manner?
  • Acceptance of data standards: Is the organization open to industry-wide data standards?

  • Transparency and documentation of data and algorithms: Are data and algorithms comprehensively documented and made internally transparent?
  • Anticipation of societal expectations: Are societal expectations for data storage and use proactively discussed? Do you know what the customer wants in relation to their data?
  • Transparency about data ecosystem: Is there comprehensive and transparent documentation of key points regarding data shared or exchanged with partners?

How to get data on the board agenda

1 | Detect the data culture in the company

Raise awareness of data governance and establish a common language between the board of directors and senior management.

 

2 | Determine the impact of data on the company

Identify and discuss key data topics relevant to your business in collaboration between the Board of Directors and executive management.

 

3 | Discuss the strategic implications of data for the company

Identify the need to adapt or introduce new data-related corporate policies.

 

4 | Develop a roadmap for the datafication of the company

Ask the management to develop a roadmap for datafication.

Discuss and approve the datafication roadmap.

Monitor the implementation of the roadmap and review and update it periodically as necessary.

Further Readings

 

Data Strategy | Harvard Business Review

​Data Culture | McKinsey Quarterly

​Artificial Governance | Journal of Management and Governance

​Data Value | Directorship

​Data-driven Organization | Sloan Management Review

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