It could be said that absence makes appreciation of corporate governance grow stronger. Successful chief executives rarely attribute their latest set of stellar results to high standards of corporate governance, but low standards quickly translate into poor bottom-line performance, and worse.
We don’t need to look far to find examples of where poor governance can lead. In the case of the national broadcaster, it led to appearances before Oireachtas committees which rivalled any of its programmes for dramatic flourish. It also led to a State bailout and a harrowing period for blameless rank-and-file staff.
The financial travails of the Football Association of Ireland also come to mind, as do a number of scandals in the charity sector and some recent, quite eye-watering procurement decisions by State bodies.
The common thread running through all these cases is the fact that the problems would likely not have occurred had even adequate corporate governance processes been in place.
Good corporate governance is central to every organisation, says Dr Margaret Cullen, programme director of the UCD Smurfit Executive Development Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance.
“Corporate governance is about how you run your business,” she explains. “It’s about strategy formulation and execution within a given level of board-approved residual risk. When you look at why companies survive and thrive, it is fundamentally linked to their capacity to get strategy right and operate within appropriate risk parameters.”
This must always be seen in context, Cullen adds. “Strategy and risk appetite can’t be defined without really strong clarity of purpose,” she says. “A company wants to provide good products or services to the market and make a profit. Its purpose might also include not harming the planet and doing good for customers. The people running the business need to understand what it’s there for and not do sudden U-turns on strategy.
“Someone once said ‘let’s not let governance overwhelm strategy’. Governance is strategy. If you just see it as internal controls or risk management, you’re missing the point.”
Now in its 22nd year, the UCD Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance is Ireland’s longest-running programme of its type, having been founded by Prof Niamh Brennan in 2004.
“I am now in my 18th year teaching on the programme and it is a tremendous privilege to have been passed the baton by Prof Brennan,” says Cullen. “The core tenets of corporate governance will never go out of style, but we continue to evolve the programme to adapt to the changing environment.”
Programme participants gain the technical competence required to inform the critical thinking necessary to execute governance roles in today’s world, she adds. That includes an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework within which companies and boards operate; an appreciation for corporate governance as a system with key interdependencies and an understanding of how to optimise this system in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders; and an understanding of the behaviours required from well-functioning boards and the expectations and requirements of individual directors.
Among the more recent changes to the programme has been the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) elements into a number of the modules.
A new module on technology governance was introduced last year. This covers a broad range of areas including assessing and managing IT-related risk, understanding the impact of emerging technologies on business operations and the board’s role in guiding digital transformation initiatives, cyber resilience and cyber risks, and the ethical and legal issues related to IT governance.
“We redesigned some of the other modules on the programme to make space for the technology governance module,” says Cullen. “We are very pleased that Prof Joe Peppard, Smurfit Executive Development academic director, is delivering the module.”
An important change being made for the coming 2025/26 academic year is the delivery model.
“We talked to people who want to do the programme and found that many of them have busy schedules or are located outside of Dublin, and may have difficulty attending two evenings a week,” Cullen explains. “However, face-to-face delivery is a big part of the programme. Peer-to-peer learning from other highly experienced people in the classroom is so important.
“What we’re doing this year is moving to block delivery. Instead of coming in every Monday and Tuesday for the year, participants will come in three days a month. They will have the same amount of class-based time and we are hoping this will facilitate more people who want to do it and allow them to use the time between the blocks for reflection, preparation and self-directed learning.”
Applications are now open for the next programme beginning in September and Cullen encourages anyone interested to get in touch with her to discuss the Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance. “People can reach out to me through the Smurfit Executive Development team,” she says.
For more information, visit smurfitschool.ie
