The ethics of innovation from the boardroom
Business model transformation is a hot topic of discussion for many executives and board directors, and for good reason.
Faced with shifting demographics, a changing lens about who should have a voice at the boardroom table and driven by a global pandemic that has accelerated the pace of technological change, traditional business models are being pushed to evolve or risk becoming irrelevant.
“Building forward-thinking models is a daunting task, especially for legacy businesses that are aware that their rigid and slower moving structures are under threat but don’t know how to change them,” explains professor Michael Hartmann, the principal of The Directors College and executive director of the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) in Digital Transformation at the Degroote School of Business.
To succeed in these times of rapid change, according to Hartmann, management must learn to practice what they preach when claiming to be an agile organization, by embedding innovation enablers into their core. The board needs to support management’s innovation agenda by challenging assumptions and actions when necessary and ensuring that ethical considerations are always part of the decisionmaking process.
The board is the chief ethicist for any organization. An important responsibility for today’s boards is the understanding and exploring the long-term impact of innovation projects and the interconnection between technology, global opportunities and other systemic risks. At the end of the day, their role is to ensure that the reputation of the organization remains intact — as do the relationships it has with its stakeholders — because that reputation can quickly be tarnished and is extremely difficult to restore.
The Directors College’s annual Innovation Governance course explores the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities of board directors in supporting their organization’s innovation agenda. A team of world-class faculty works with course participants to explore how to build a culture of innovation, how to navigate the ethics of disruptive technologies, and how to balance innovation risks, including the nefarious impact of cyber threats, while also embracing new opportunities. The course also introduces attendees to a range of innovation frameworks and tools, including design thinking and strategic foresight, to help them take what is learned in the classroom back to the boardroom and beyond.
This unique program helps directors to identify the challenges to overcome, as well as the levers of influence they can exercise to navigate them, said Hartmann. “Disruptive directors are necessary to navigate the tension between risk and opportunity and strategies of innovation in a digital world and the space between what is legal and what is moral.”
The Innovation Governance program is founded on the Chartered Director Program, going beyond theory to cover not only formal rules and practices, but also the behaviours associated with high-performing boards. This gold standard in governance education offers flexible programs that are accredited, diverse, and comprehensive. An immersive five-module program offers a mix of e-lectures with interactive case studies to provide directors with practical learning, including an immersive board simulation, to provide directors with the experience they need to make an immediate impact.
“We wrap up all of our sessions with a discussion around what you’re going to do with what you’ve learned,” says Hartmann. “So, we do a lesson around design and identify two or three issues that participants can bring back to their boards. And, we practice what we teach following a Code of Ethical Conduct that encourages our students and alumni to fearlessly question assumptions to ensure that the best way forward is the right one.”
For more information about The Directors College, the Innovation Governance for Directors module or the Chartered Director Program, among others, visit