Boards gave management — and themselves — high marks in the early months of their crisis response this spring. PwC’s Paula Loop highlights how to ensure those positives outlast the pandemic.
For even the most seasoned of directors, the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought a pace of change — and a level of economic and societal uncertainty — unlike anything they’ve experienced in their careers.
This May, PwC surveyed corporate directors about how their boards and their companies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 250 public company directors offered their views on their own performance and that of their management teams, as well as potential future impacts of the pandemic.
While few companies planned for disruption of this scope, it was heartening to see a wide majority of directors praising management’s early-stage response.
- More than 95 percent of directors surveyed say their companies did a good or excellent job of dealing with issues such as interruptions in internal operations and supply chain disruptions.
- About 98 percent of directors say their companies did a good or excellent job managing the transition to remote work, and 97 percent said the same about the handling of employee relations overall.
- Even with the demands of board service increasing and meetings having no choice but…
