The Client: Standard Bank Group
Digital transformation involves rethinking how technology can be used to improve business models, value propositions, customer experience, operational efficiency, and more. This means innovating to deliver enhanced products, services, and customer engagement, but for top-performing firms, it also means having a board of directors and management team that is digitally conversant.
The MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) found that “among companies with over $1 billion in revenues, 24% had digitally savvy boards, and those businesses significantly outperformed others on key metrics—such as revenue growth, return on assets, and market cap growth.” The CISR report authors call digitally savvy boards “a new financial performance differentiator.”
Getting your board on board
“Digitally savvy directors change the risk conversation from evaluating the project risk of a particular initiative to the business model risk of not doing something new,” said Peter Weill, the Chair of CISR, urging boards “to step up and help lead their companies transform to thrive in the digital economy.”
In response to this need and informed by the 40 board sessions conducted by CISR around the globe, MIT Sloan has created an executive education program designed specifically for leaders and board members of large enterprises. Led by world-renowned MIT faculty, the Digitally Savvy Board Member program is delivered as an open enrollment program as well as a custom engagement for an organization’s board.
“MIT Sloan and CISR put together a truly superb program on digital savviness for our board. Their expertise is unmatched, and so is their capacity to speak directly to the interests and concerns of senior executives and directors as they seek competitive advantage and sustainability in the digital age.”
An ambitious pilot with impressive results
The financial services industry tends to be on the cautious side of business transformations—especially so when technology is concerned. The MIT CISR study found that “boards of financial services firms are among the least digitally savvy,” with only 13 percent of financial services firms among the 1,233 publicly traded companies with revenues of $1 billion. This is a serious problem: financial services firms not only compete with one another for customers, but they are constantly on the defensive against technology companies moving into their market.
For us, it was especially gratifying to design and deliver the first Digitally Savvy Board Member program for the Standard Bank Group. The largest financial group in Africa, Standard Bank Group is based in Johannesburg but operates in 20 countries across the continent, each with its own board. Managing the logistics of getting the most senior executives and board members from across the continent to gather for an executive education program was non-trivial, but the result was worth every effort.
Standard Bank Group has had a longstanding relationship with MIT CISR, where the bank has been a sponsor. Through that partnership, the Group’s senior leadership came to understand and appreciate the vital importance of digital transformation for their organization.
Sweeping digital transformation is vital
This program was the first of its kind among business schools. To create an educational experience for this type of audience is no small feat on many levels. We are proud of the partnership with Standard Bank Group and the 40 other companies globally where MIT CISR has conducted board sessions.
“Boards have three key roles around digital: defensive, oversight, and strategic,” emphasized Weill. “This interactive program helps board members become digitally savvy and perform those roles confidently, particularly by asking the right questions of the senior management team.”
Could your board–and your bottom line–benefit from skilling up? This may sound like an unorthodox idea for a group of very senior people, but it’s time for boards to lean in and help their companies with their digital transformations.