According to the results of a recent 21-question survey ("Corporate Governance Challenges in the COVID-19 Crisis") ") of GCs, corporate secretaries and IROs representing 236 companies across sectors and sizes conducted by The Conference Board, Debevoise & Plimpton, and Russell Reynolds Associates, the top three board concerns among all company sizes and most industries are (in descending order): (i) liquidity (e.g., revolver borrowing) and other capital allocation issues (e.g., dividends, share repurchases, regulatory capital requirements), (ii) workforce, and (iii) operations.
The structure of board oversight of COVID-19 varies across companies. Most commonly, respondent company boards have designated the board chair (33%) or lead independent director (27%) to lead communications with management about the crisis. However, nearly 18% have designated a board committee chair as the lead (most commonly, the Audit Committee) and another 18%+ have not designated a lead.
Nearly 80% of respondents believe that COVID-19 will affect their companies’ sustainability program in some fashion, as shown here:
Business continuity/disaster preparedness plans will likely receive greater focus going forward. Just under 27% of respondents said their company's plan was considered adequate to respond to the COVID-19 challenges and is being followed. Another 33.5% said it was not considered adequate, but they are nonetheless substantially following it. And nearly 30% said it was not considered adequate but that they have been updating it since the crisis began. Just 10% cited no plan at the outbreak of the crisis.
See The Conference Board's post: "New Survey Finds Sharp Divide Over Pandemic’s Impact on Corporate Sustainability" (CLS Blue Sky Blog) and additional COVID-19 benchmarking resources on our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources page under Surveys/Studies. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!