Boards

Boards Need a New Approach to Technology

By worrying primarily about security and IT, they’re missing out on big opportunities across the sciences.

by

and

Nabil Y. Sakkab

by

and

Nabil Y. Sakkab

From the Magazine (September–October 2024) · Long read

Maria do Rosário Frade

Summary.

The boards of too many publicly traded companies are downright timid when considering matters involving science and technology. More often than not, they focus on security and digitization—a defensive posture that fails to consider the bigger opportunities emerging from new materials, space science, and a better understanding of the genome—to name just a few areas of opportunity. It’s easy to be lulled into thinking that science does not matter to a nontech company. But that distinction isn’t quite so meaningful when it comes to capitalizing on the opportunities from technological change that is now ubiquitous, rapid, turbulent, and often emanating from increasingly unlikely corners.

The authors have observed firsthand an effective way to address this gap: the board technology committee. Drawing on the achievements of tech committees at AES, Johnson & Johnson, and Altria (companies for which the authors are or have been directors), they describe how these entities can advance the interests of organizations and offer advice on how to set one up.

Idea in Brief

The Challenge

Too often the boards of publicly traded companies are downright timid about science and technology.

The Reason

Most boards lack the expertise, the experience, and the organizational structure to identify developments in science and technology that can benefit their organizations.

The Solution

Board-level technology committees—working closely with senior management—can be powerful forces for exploration, innovation, and growth.

The boards of too many publicly traded companies are downright timid when considering matters involving science and technology. More often than not they focus on security and digitization—a defensive posture that overlooks the bigger opportunities emerging from new materials, space science, and a better understanding of the genome, to name just a few areas. It’s easy to be lulled into thinking that science doesn’t matter to a nontech company. But that distinction isn’t quite so meaningful when it comes to capitalizing on the technological change that is now ubiquitous, rapid, turbulent, and often emerging from increasingly unlikely corners.

A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2024 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, the director of Harvard’s Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, and the author of Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries (Berrett-Koehler, 2018).
MB

Mary C. Beckerle is the CEO of Huntsman Cancer Institute and a Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Utah.
NS

Nabil Y. Sakkab is a former senior vice president of corporate research and development at Procter & Gamble.

Boards Need a New Approach to Technology

Idea in Brief

The Challenge

The Reason

The Solution

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