In many companies, the board is understood as a supervisory body, responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance, efficient capital management and risk control. But in today’s competitive environment, that role is no longer enough. Boards that truly add value do not only protect the present; they help provoke the future. They do not act merely as guardians of the current business, but as catalysts for strategic transformation.
An active board does not wait for reports to form an opinion. It observes the reality of the business directly. It visits the market, engages with customers, walks through operations, and devotes time to listening and understanding, not just reviewing numbers. It seeks to understand first, and then to advise. This proximity to the business strengthens its connection with strategy and enables the board to renew its questions, expand analytical frameworks and identify new opportunities. As Alan Amling states in his book Organizational Velocity: Turbocharge Your Business to Stay Ahead of the Curve, the role of the board is not only to challenge results, but to push management to shift the focus from “what we sell” to “the value we truly deliver.” That distinction forces leadership to think beyond the product and adopt the customer’s perspective. The board’s challenge is not just to protect what works today, but to ask what value we will be creating tomorrow.
When a board embraces its role with strategic rigor, it creatively challenges the organization’s comfort zone, accepts informed risk and accelerates evolution. As Joseph Astrachan, family business fellow at the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management and director of Foley Equipment, Systems & Methods Inc. and V&V Supremo Foods Inc., often says, “The board must be a force for timely change.” In other words, it encourages decisions not when reaction is the only option, but when anticipation is still possible. And it does so out of conviction: A board genuinely driven by purpose seeks not only profitability, but legacy. From that perspective, growth transcends financial outcomes and becomes an expression of the future the organization intends to create.
A pivotal element is the accountability the board places on the CEO. It is not only about reviewing performance but about demanding vision. A board that drives innovation holds executive leadership accountable not just for managing the current business, but for building the next one. It asks which curves are approaching maturity and which ones we are preparing. It questions where the resources will come from to fund the future. It does not just measure past returns, but the organization’s capacity to create future value. And for that vision to emerge, debate within the board is essential — the kind of debate that brings out different perspectives, challenges assumptions and raises the quality of decision-making. Boards that debate with rigor and depth generate strategic clarity.
Thus, companies that manage to evolve do so not only because they have innovative teams, but because they have boards that inspire, challenge and support them. Protecting the business is a board’s duty. Provoking the future is its true leadership.