Five corporate governance guidelines to accelerate change and sustainable growth in Europe
Foreword
The world is changing and so does governance. Democracy is in a crisis, platforms take over business, digital transformation becomes the new normal. Or in governance terms: we move towards servant leadership, shared economy, and new stakeholders. ecoDa, the Voice of European Directors, wishes to make its own contribution. Not through rules, but through tools – by exchange of best practices.
In this way ecoDa intends to participate in the reflection the European Commission has initiated on the role that corporate governance could play to promote sustainability in European companies.
The objective of this document is to unite European board members around a common action plan to respond to the multiple challenges they face. and to define good practices to which they should strive. The expectations vis-à-vis companies are high and they must behave as exemplary "citizens" creating meaning for society while acting in a responsible manner regarding their external effects.
ecoDa believes in the value of leading by example and hopes that this document can be useful to executives and non-executives to benchmark their own practices to this compilation which aggregates the best practices observed in Europe. Some of the 50 good practices proposed in this document may not be applicable in all countries in view of national specificities, but referring to these proven standards seems to us a good start to open to new ways of fulfilling the EU sustainable growth objectives.
ecoDa hopes to initiate a dialogue around this document and is keen to receive any feedback (contact@ecoda.org).
I warmly thank the working group, led by François Bouvard, member of the Board of the French Institute of Directors (IFA), for their outstanding work.
Jan Wesseldijk, ecoDa’s Chair
