Seismic — or, certainly systemic — regulatory shifts loom on the horizon, yet GRC executives are starting to be confronted with a more immediate change: the behavior of their directors.

Associations and consultants who represent and serve corporate directors are not waiting to see how the U.S. new regulatory regime ultimately shakes out. Instead, these experts have been busy working with directors for several months to help them expand their own governance, risk, and compliance management awareness and activities.

CFOs, compliance officers, chief audit executives, and other GRC executives can expect a slew of new questions from directors, including the following:

• Is our market view realistic?

• Does our financing strategy take into account the new conditions?

• Should we reset our incentive compensation strategy and/or abandon any approaches linked to share prices?

• Can we exploit the current glut of talent?

• What is our working capital management situation?

• Can we take advantage of the pain our competitors are feeling?

Most of those questions come from McKinsey consultants Andrew Campbell and Stuart Sinclair in their report “The Crisis: Mobilizing Boards for Change.”

In addition, The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)has launched an ambitious campaign — one it bills as “America’s Challenge for Corporate Directors” — to help boards “lead the charge in improving board performance and corporate oversight by strengthening governance practices.”

The effort is based on the central principle that boards need a “solid framework for making governance decisions” rather than “prescriptions for solving boardroom challenges.”

To that end, NACD has developed a set of principles intended to guide corporate leaders. These 10 principles cover transparency, competency, accountability, and ethics as well as other issues and more tactical processes. ###