The speed of change in digitisation is ever-increasing, but not all Directors feel at ease with new, digital ways of working in their boardrooms.  However, boards simply must adapt as digitisation does not stop at the boardroom door.

Maddie is a Chartered Secretary who has supported various companies, from FTSE 100 to small private companies. In her current role as UK Managing Director for Computershare Governance Services, she leads a team of Company Secretaries who support listed and private companies to maintain compliance and enhance their governance.

Some of the key takeaways of the conversation include:

"We have become more used to virtual meetings… it's not as contrived as it perhaps seems"

The pandemic has forced virtual meetings to become everyday occurrences.  Most boards know these bring increased efficiency and reduced cost, but Maddie Scrafton believes that the quality of virtual conversation depends on how willing board members are to embrace it.

She acknowledges the difficulty of creating a natural group dynamic when people are not physically in the room together. Solutions typically include more formal routes, such as additional sub-committees or mid-meetings between more formal meetings, to ensure ongoing discussions in a more relaxed, social way.  However, more innovative or creative solutions have been found in some virtual boardrooms.

Maddie explains how one company pre-recorded presentations, enabling members to focus in the boardroom on the issues raised rather than the presentations themselves.  Sabine also describes one board that served lunch to all members at the same time, simulating eating together.

"You need robust debate, and it helps to be in the room"

The jump to the virtual world is not always appropriate, and movement toward a hybrid model is becoming increasingly common.  Transactional and "business as usual" decisions are ideal for virtual meetings, however for subjects that might benefit from more challenge, such as strategy or year-end results, in person, 'in the room' meetings will still be better.

"It is important for board members to have a consistent understanding of the terminology and meaning of technology"

Boards are now more aware of technology and technical terminology. However, although some are increasingly 'tech savvy,' not all boards benefit.  Digital portals may be the standard in the boardroom for larger or FTSE-100 companies. Still, smaller companies may be unaware of the benefits, reluctant to implement, or simply not have considered how technology can help with their working processes.

"We should be making communication simpler, not more complex… Just because you can do something and make it more complex doesn't mean you should"

Technology moves quickly, and boards may need to use external advice or board training. Still, many technologies may actually be easy for directors to use at the front end but laborious behind the scenes.  Maddie describes the increasingly complex tasks portal technology can do, such as minute templates, providing market information, and chat functionality.  In practice, very few companies are using even a fraction of this capability, so there is a huge amount of gain still to be realised from technology in the boardroom.

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