Digital know-how in the boardroom | Hasan el Bouhali, Board Advisor, Mentor & Angel Investor

The Better Boards Podcast Series

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Digitalisation is a tsunami reshaping the world and challenging organisations. However, few Directors have both the first-hand experience and the know-how to oversee organisations’ digital challenges.

In this podcast, Dr Sabine Dembkowski, Founder and Managing Partner of Better Boards, discusses digital know-how with Hassan el Bouhali from Toronto, Canada. They discuss the barriers to bringing digital know-how into the boardroom, steps organisations have taken to increase their board digital acumen, where boards can find the digital talent they need, and what they need to do after recruiting a suitable candidate.

Hassan is a business executive with 25 years’ experience in various industries leading to SVP Business Transformation & CIO roles for global multinationals. He holds board advisory positions with established industrial companies and is active in the Canadian tech ecosystems as a Mentor and Angel Investor.

Hassan explains that no industry is immune from digital disruption. Despite this reality, he observes that most boards lack the required digital knowledge or what he calls a ‘digital IQ’ to fully face digital opportunities and risks. Moreover, even when boards do hire digital savvy executives, it is generally difficult for these new members to steer board discussion beyond basic tech risks. He notes that deep strategic discussion about how digital is transforming the industry value chain and the company business model are still the exception. Hassan believes that the biggest barriers to getting digital know-how into boardrooms are:

1. There is often an entrenched belief that the management practices that worked in the ‘industrial age’ are still valid for the digital age.
2. There is the natural human aversion to risk. Embarking on a true digital transformation that changes the value chain or transforms the business is inherently risky.
3. The nature of technology itself is also a key factor. Hassan says. Digital technologies are different from industrial age ones by design, making them difficult to comprehend.

Regarding best practices in bringing technology into the boardroom, Hassan feels things are improving. Firstly, he finds that most organisations now have a digital committee. Secondly, he observed the value of digital development programmes that increase the overall board's digital IQ. Thirdly, he sees an increase in the frequency of discussions about technology and digitalisation, as well as changing the focus of discussion from risks to growth opportunities.

Hassan notes that board members need to govern the enterprise not run the business. New board candidates need a high level of ease with technology, and to have done or delivered technology-driven products, projects, or large-scale transformations that allow them to understand how technology enables or generates value in economic terms. Once suitable talent has been recruited, onboarding is crucial. Here the Chair has an important role in giving the new members time to speak up and most importantly, to be open to the new jargon and the new mix of opportunities and risks that technology and digitalisation bring to the table.

The three top takeaways from our conversation are:

1. Disruption is real and accelerating in every industry, and this has major implications. The board must be aligned with the opportunity that digital presents
2. The digital IQ of the board must be collectively increased with experiential training and education
3. Board structure and composition must include technology savvy and digital native people, and discussions around technology and digital need to be about growth, not just risk.