Initiatives

ro:bo:ards

ro:bo:ards focuses on the role of data and artificial intelligence. The initiative aims at empowering boards to harness the power of data and ai.
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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