An Accelerator Digital Board

Corporate Board plays a significant role in overseeing organizational strategy, setting policies, practicing governance and exemplifying leadership disciplines. The board also has to strike the right balance between acceleration and governance. The board with digital savvy BoDs understand what's required and how as a high-level basis of going digital mean to the business, so they can make a significant impact on accelerating digital transformation with a premium speed.  

The accelerated mindset: The corporate board as a top leadership team plays a significant role in steering the business to the right direction; at today’s “VUCA” digital new normal, it is not an easy task, BoDs need to have learning agility for updating knowledge, enjoying fresh point of view, and abstracting knowledge to insight to wisdom. With the fast pace of changes, the most important function of any board is the oversight of a holistic company strategy and execution through focused leadership, monitor its implementation and results, amend wherever necessary to match changing marketplace conditions. Hence, an accelerator board can ride above the learning curve quickly via staying focus, setting discipline, and strengthening the strength, these BoDs can also exemplify accelerated leadership - authentic, innovative, audacious, adaptive for driving changes seamlessly. The BoDs with accelerated mindset can solve critical business problems more creatively, and practice digital leadership with vision and passion.
Accelerating performance: The boards have to both oversee strategy management as well as practice governance disciplines. BoDs need to strike the right balance between performance and compliance. That means they have to show the organization is “playing to win,” not just trying not to lose - with accelerating performance. More specifically, the board’s role, in large part is to make good decisions that enhance the value creation for the organization. They need to focus on their own performance as well as the performance of the management team. Perhaps one of the dilemmas of the modern board is that at one time, they need to push the gas pedal to accelerate the business speed; at the other time, they will be the brake for practicing governance discipline. Still, it is not about stopping the corporate vehicle, but ensure it’s running at a premium speed, that organization produces a worthwhile pattern of good results while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad circumstance. It is running at a steadfast pace, out beat competitions, still full of energy.
Accelerating digital transformation: Organizations large or small are on the journey of digital transformation, speed matters because it reflects the organizational change capability and directly impacts the responsiveness of the business and effectiveness of strategy management. The Board provides an “outside-in” view of businesses and multi-dimensional lenses to oversee and advise business strategy and execution. To accelerate such a business transformation, BoDs start with big and compelling reason WHY - to clear the vision and fuel the passion. When the WHY gets clarified, get into the WHAT - not about micromanagement, but about clarifying responsibility and accountability. And then touch the significant part of HOW - not about trivial details, but for deepening understanding. If needed, also follow up with WHO: Who is accountable for a vision for the change? Who is initiating the change? Who is providing change adoption strategy? Who leads the execution of change? Ask ‘CORE’ questions in terms of accountability when talking about a digital transformation, it can impact the core, enabling and supporting capabilities of the business. You need to understand that if talking about business at core enabling and supporting level, in that case, accountability comes from managers at core.
An accelerator board with digital-savvy BoDs equipped with growth mindset has the advantage of pulling enough resources and pushing the business model of technology, trustworthiness to accelerate performance; prepare and launch change, innovate, and master digital fluency to make a leap of digital transformation.  



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