On the 2025 board agenda

Boards can expect their oversight and corporate governance processes to be put to the test in 2025 as companies face unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. The new administration’s policy positions—on tax, trade, immigration, and regulation more generally—may have a significant impact on the economic, geopolitical, business, and risk landscape. In addition, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, elevated trade and geopolitical tensions, recession and inflation risks, and domestic polarization will add to the complexity. Risks related to cybersecurity, climate change, and artificial intelligence (AI) will pose significant challenges.

In this volatile operating environment, expect continuing scrutiny of board oversight of risks to the company’s operations and strategy. The pressure on management, boards, and governance will continue to be significant.

Drawing on insights from our conversations with directors and business leaders, we highlight nine issues to keep in mind as boards consider and carry out their 2025 agendas:

• Maintain focus on how management is preparing to address risks and opportunities related to geopolitical and economic shifts and global disruption.
• Model and assess what the new administration’s policy initiatives might mean for the company’s strategy in 2025 and beyond.
• Understand the company’s generative AI (GenAI) strategy and related risks, and closely monitor the governance structure around the company’s deployment and use of the technology.
• Probe whether the company’s data governance and cybersecurity governance frameworks and processes are keeping pace with the growth and sophistication of data-related risks.
• Keep environmental and social issues, including climate risk, embedded in risk and strategy discussions, and monitor management’s preparations for new US, state, and global sustainability reporting requirements.
• Maintain the focus on CEO succession and talent development.
• Help set the tone, closely monitor the culture, and keep abreast of management’s efforts to build stakeholder trust and protect the company’s reputation.
• Revisit board and committee risk oversight responsibilities and the allocation of issues among committees, including whether the existing committee structure is still fit for purpose.
• Think strategically about the company’s future needs and reconsider whether and how the board’s composition and succession planning process address them.