Vision, Strategic Direction & Intent – a clear strength on Swiss Boards

Based on the results of a research study recently conducted by Denison Consulting amongst Board Members of Swiss companies on “The Role of Corporate Culture on Supervisory Boards” it is clear that Board Members of Swiss companies see strength in the way they deal with Vision as well as Strategic Direction & Intent as a Board.

On the question “The Board has a long-term viewpoint” 98% of participating Board Members scored favorably (only 2% „neutral“), resulting in a mean score of 4.51 on a five-point scale. Compared to the global Denison benchmark this reflects 99 percentiles, meaning essentially that Swiss Boards seem to be best in class with respect to that dimension.

An equally high level was achieved on the questions “On this Board, there is a long-term purpose and direction” and “On this Board, there is a clear strategy for the future.”

All three questions form part of the Denison trait “Mission,” being one of the four areas that according to the Denison model are key to creating a high-performing organizational culture.

All three questions were among the highest scores across all 34 questions from the survey, and it is particularly interesting that 3 out of the top 5 ratings are clustered in the Mission trait. It, therefore, seems to be a key strength of Swiss Supervisory Boards. According to interviews conducted with a number of Board members this score is perfectly reasonable as strategy focus is a key responsibility (together with the executive management team) for Supervisory Boards in Switzerland.

There were no significant differences between participating industries and no differences between company sizes. There were also no differences between the Presidents of the Board and the Members as well as no difference between listed versus non-listed companies. So overall a very consistent picture has been given, that Supervisory Board members of Swiss companies see this as a strength.

If you are interested in the full details of the study, please contact Anja Fiedler under afiedler@denisoncultureeurope.com. We would like to thank all participants for their contribution.