2022 Board Leadership Conference Highlights
The 2022 KPMG Board Leadership Conference—a virtual program for corporate board directors—featured live conversations with preeminent leaders and luminaries on the pressing issues driving business priorities and boardroom agendas.
Business model disruptions—sparked by COVID-related shifts to “digital everything,” changing consumer behaviors and employee expectations, and a dynamic risk landscape—are putting corporate transformations to the test. Defining the end state of a transformation and having an experienced team as well as a strong ecosystem of expertise are pivotal to the outcome. Good governance around the transformation initiative, including early engagement with, and regular reporting to, the board is critical to keeping the effort focused on “true north.” Importantly, over-communicating to employees and making people part the process can help overcome organizational resistance and draw out the resilience in the company’s culture.
The problem seems intractable: Nearly half of Americans get their news and information from social media,1 where algorithms amplify and accelerate the spread of misinformation with little (if any) counterbalance. Distrust in the media abounds, with implications for news and the public square, corporate reputations, and the trust that drives open societies. With traditional journalism struggling under cost cuts and shrinking attention spans, the road back to trust and public discourse based on a “shared reality” will be challenging—particularly given the polarized and largely unregulated state of social media. Corporate culture, responsible algorithms, regulation, and renewed investment in journalism will all shape how today’s infodemic unfolds and whether the currency of trust regains its value.
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1 Mason Walker and Katerina Eva Matsa, News Consumption Across Social Media in 2021, Pew Research Center, September 20, 2021.
Boardroom climate competence: Getting ahead of the curve
Fernando Aguirre
Director
Ian Bremmer
President and Founder
Steven Chu
Former Secretary of Energy; Nobel Prize-winning physicist; Professor
Ronan Farrow
Pulitzer Prize Winning
Dr. Richard Haass
President
Katty Kay
Award-winning Journalist & Anchor
Christopher Krebs
Former Director
Sara Mathew
Board Chair, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (Freddie Mac)
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