22 | Greater London Awards 2020 Oct20096 Best Non-Executive Membership Organisation - UK Realising today’s opportunities and meeting tomorrow’s challenges are vital to the sustainable success of organisations, and boards of directors are a key enabler. Empowering and supporting the competence of boards across the United Kingdom is NEDonBoard, the trading name of the Global Institute of Board Members. Discover how this professional membership body for non-executive and executive directors is equipping individual board members with principles, knowledge, and skills that recognise commercial success is underpinned by strong corporate responsibility, and sustainability. Connection, knowledge, and authority are three core principles for any board member or non-executive director to have. They also happen to be the three core operating principles of NEDonBoard, the UK authoritative platform made by board members, for board members. NEDonBoard promotes contemporary and relevant approaches to board and directorial leadership, sets practices for modern and effective business governance, and is a strong advocate of boardroom- level cognitive diversity. In everything that NEDonBoard does, members come first, always. Everything it does is to serve the community of non-executive directors and board members so that boards run smoothly and effectively. NEDonBoard is a truly independent organisation, solely focused on serving the connection and professional development needs of non-executive directors and board members. That is what makes it unique within the United Kingdom, as well as its approval both as a professional body and as an institute. Strongly believing in peer learning and continual learning, NEDonBoard also offers training programmes, events, and resources that are relevant, contemporary, practical, actionable, and delivered by independent non-executive directors and subject matter experts operating at board level. Their board training courses cover leading and emerging best practices in the industry. NEDonBoard has three major trends that it focuses on. Firstly, becoming a non-executive director is an attractive leadership development option for most senior executives looking to get to the next stage of their career. Professionals no longer wait until their retirement to consider non-executive directorship, and this has opened the pool to more diverse candidates. NEDonBoard is a disruptive force in an industry that has traditionally not embraced cognitive diversity. NEDonBoard promotes diversity, which means attracting candidates from non-traditional pools in UK boardrooms, such as next gen leaders, those from BAME communities, women, or individuals that have a different social or professional background. NEDonBoard supports their transition to a board career with its dedicated NED Accelerator® Programme. Secondly, COVID-19 has evidenced the inadequacy of some boards to address the challenges, risks, and opportunities related to the crisis. It is paramount that organisations have the right mix of skills, experiences, and expertise to respond to crises such as these. Having the right team of non-executive directors and board members may mean the difference between liquidation, survival or growth. Thirdly and lastly, digital transformation is a major trend that has been accelerated by COVID-19. Most boards lack digital understanding, partially due to the average age of board members and their experience with technology. Board members therefore need to upskill and boards need to refresh their composition to add new expertise. This has opened opportunities for next-generation professionals and those with expertise critical to sustainable performance as such information security, data governance, climate change and ESG, who have traditionally had limited access to the boardroom. Due to NEDonBoard’s unique positioning both as a professional body and a disruptor, it supports organisations looking to refresh their board, attract a more diverse pool of talent and experience and develop or refresh the knowledge and skills of their boards of directors. The institute also takes care to support individual professionals who are looking for inspiration. Looking ahead, NEDonBoard has exciting research topics for 2021, and has just introduced a new Modern Board Member Masterclass for recently appointed board members and more experienced board members looking for modern and contemporary board-level development. Whilst the institute’s operations remain centred on the United Kingdom, it does have growing interest from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and will aim to support all board professionals that look to the United Kingdom as the governance gold standard. For a firm that values diversity, disruption, and innovation as core ideas, NEDonBoard is a truly outstanding example of how to support businesses through those three. Businesses everywhere can benefit immensely from the services that NEDonBoard has to offer, and the support on an individual level is just as exceptional. This is a British business that understands the value of people at a time where people are so important. COVID-19 may be taking a toll on business, but NEDonBoard is focused keenly on building those professionals and organisations back up to positions where they can make a positive change and bring about exceptional results. Company: NEDonBoard Contact:
[email protected] Website: www.nedonboard.com Jean-Philippe Perraud, NEDonBoard General Director