GUBERNA Alumni Council & GUBERNA Alumni Day 2020

The 2020 edition of the GUBERNA Alumni Assembly and the GUBERNA Alumni Day has been, according to the participants, a great success. The event was attended by 85 Alumni: 53 physically and 32 digitally.

During the GUBERNA Alumni Assembly, an overview was given of the many workstreams and activities of the GUBERNA Alumni.  Danny VandeVyver and Jo Hendrikx highlighted in particular the latest initiative “GUBERNA Alumni Sparkles”.  An Alumnus interviews another Alumnus about governance related topics at the GUBERNA Home of Governance in Brussels. The first interview has been published in the GUBERNA Monthly Newsletter of September and you can find the second in this newsletter.

To introduce the GUBERNA strategic questions, Prof. dr. Abigail Levrau provided an overview of the GUBERNA strategy. This was important to put the framework around the answers on the strategic questions asked, which will be processed by the GUBERNA Management and presented to the Board of Directors on 8 October.  It serves as input for the activities of GUBERNA in the coming years.

A few highlights of the discussion: Is GUBERNA a knowledge centre or a service provider, or both? A clear positioning is required, and all segments should be targeted, including SME, start-ups, scale-ups, social profit. Better communication on what GUBERNA is doing inside and outside the organisation is a key driver to create awareness and increase the number of members. Further on, all members should become Alumni. Covid-19 should not drive the strategy, but in general, bringing the strategy topic to the board is a must moving forward.  GUBERNA should have the mission to educate the 98% of organisations who really need improvement in good governance.
We will share with you the outcome of the strategic questions.

The GUBERNA Alumni Day, New Business Models and the Impact of Governance, with keynote speaker Bruno Wattenbergh, moderator John Metselaar and a full Alumni panel (Agnes Flémal, Henri Jacobs, Christophe Baronheid and Pacale Van Damme) inspired us all. Innovation starts at the board remains an ambition. The speaker and the panel provided the participants with clear ideas, best practices, how to initiate this and to watch out for risks and pitfalls.  The presentation can be downloaded by the GUBERNA members.

Throughout the entire event we could feel the energy and commitment of the GUBERNA Alumni.  Everyone is committed to be an ambassador of good governance and of GUBERNA. Despite the sanitary measures, the Alumni participants were pleased to be able to connect with their colleagues. 

The GUBERNA team, in organising and supporting (again) this great event in Covid times, showed their agility and resilience.

Jo Benoit, Chairman GUBERNA Alumni

J’ai eu l’occasion de participer au GUBERNA Alumni Assembly & GUBERNA Alumni Day ce jeudi 1er Octobre. Le GUBERNA Alumni Council avait mis les petits plats dans les grands, et ce à tout point de vue : un endroit chaleureux, un programme de top niveau et finalement de quoi se délecter les papilles. Car effectivement, c’était mon premier évènement GUBERNA en présentiel (combiné avec du distenciel) depuis le début de cette triste crise. Quel bonheur d’avoir l’occasion de revoir les collègues autrement que par écran interposé !

L’assemblée des alumni fût l’occasion de constater l’importante transformation que GUBERNA est en train de parcourir, notamment en termes de digitalisation et d’ouverture vers un public d’administrateurs plus large. Ce fût aussi l’opportunité pour les alumni de partager leurs suggestions d’évolution et d’amélioration avec le GUBERNA Alumni Council, et ce afin que GUBERNA réponde aux mieux aux souhaits de ses membres.

Démarra ensuite le GUBERNA Alumni Day sur le thème de l’innovation et du rôle du CA par rapport à l’innovation. Le sujet fût introduit par un Bruno Wattenbergh passionné, et fût approfondi par un panel diversifié et de top niveau animé par un John Metselaar dynamique. Personnellement, les messages-clé qui m’ont frappé : la nécessité mais aussi encore le long chemin à faire pour développer une culture qui non seulement accepte l’échec, mais encore mieux le célèbre comme une nécessité pour l’innovation. Également le grand défi pour le management de combiner trois dimensions : le “business-as-usual”, l’innovation et le changement disruptif. Et vu la tendance naturelle à se focaliser sur le business-as-usual, le rôle essentiel du CA de s’assurer que suffisamment de temps, d’énergie et de ressources soient consacrées à préparer le futur.

Le tout se termina autour d’une bonne table avec de très agréables convives, bien sûr dans le respect des mesures de sécurité. Un tout grand bravo pour le dynamisme du GUBERNA Alumni Council.

Yves Poullet, Shagane Executive Coaching

Our GUBERNA Alumni Panel debate brought to light an interesting balance between theoretical principles and practical implementation, the associated challenges, and some ways to address them. From corporate organisations to small and medium companies, boards play an essential and decisive role on how governance can support innovation and new business models. It's all about mindset, culture, agility, entrepreneurship and having the right people to create the desired future.

Christophe Baronheid, BeerFac

Zoals jullie weten heeft GUBERNA een actieve alumni werking met een verscheidenheid aan activiteiten.

Op 1 oktober vond de GUBERNA Alumni Assembly en de GUBERNA Alumni Day plaats. Beide events zijn ook dit jaar zeer succesvol verlopen.

De GUBERNA Alumni Assembly is een zeer mooi initiatief waarbij onze alumni de gelegenheid krijgen om mee te denken over een leden werking die voor iedereen interessant kan zijn. Er werden zeer goede suggesties gedaan die de GUBERNA Alumni Council zal meenemen in het verder uitrollen van haar strategie. De Council hecht veel waarde aan deze vorm van interactiviteit en inbreng van haar leden. Het is immers van het grootste belang om good governance te kunnen blijven ontwikkelen door van elkaar te leren, ervaringen te delen en te kunnen netwerken.

Ook de GUBERNA Alumni Day was goed opgevat met zeer boeiende sprekers en veel ruimte voor dialoog. Het aansluitende diner was goed georganiseerd en kwalitatief helemaal in orde met een kans tot boeiende gesprekken. Ik zou dit een aanrader willen noemen voor alle alumni met een warme oproep om volgend jaar deel te nemen.

Jo Hendrikx, Straight Business Partners

According to Bruno Wattenbergh, ‘Strategy in the 21st Century’ will be based on ‘Pull by Customer Pain’. To go faster in looking to change the business model in the right way, an option could be to create separate start-up’s to try out several possible scenarios.

The board is responsible to balance investments in 3 parts: (1) cash cow (60%), (2) future cash cow (30 %) & disruptive (10 %).

The focus is to integrate all this in one E2E solution. To stimulate innovation as part of the business process, the management receives KPI based on innovation & cultural parameters.

The role of the board should be to pay attention to the trends, to analyse them on a regular basis, and to trigger the management to prepare several scenarios so that the board can decide which vision/mission/plan they will implement. All these concepts are now ready on the shelf to be used in 2020.

Soon 1,1 Billion Gen Z’s will look for a job and become an important buying force.
The call to action for the GUBERNA Alumni is clear.

Danny VandeVyver, Atos

Gathering on a regular basis, each class community is another inspiring initiative to foster stronger connections between the GUBERNA Alumni. The GUBERNA Alumni are an extraordinary diverse pool of experts, open for larger relationships beyond their common focus on governance.

Catherine Delanghe, Centre De Bonne Gouvernance Paul Tassin