Boardroom Thinking and Uncertainty. We are in a period or massive upheaval within the UK economy and in the world generally. Globally it is not just the economy that is in turmoil, but also International relations due to the war in Ukraine and USA-China tensions over Taiwan. The latter made worse by the global shortage of semiconductor chips and the fact that for advanced chips, 90% of China’s supply comes from Taiwan and for the USA 70% of their supply comes from Taiwan.

The obvious impacts of the uncertainty are:

• High and rapidly changing inflation
• Leading to an unwillingness to enter into fixed price long term contracts
• Uncertainty over Interest Rates which are also subject to rapid change
• Leading to an unwillingness of banks to commit to long term lending at fixed rates to business or for mortgages. UK banks and building societies withdrew over 50% of their fixed rate mortgage deals
• Unexpected Supply Chain shortages due to uncertainties over the ability to resupply as required
• Energy shortages, which might cause energy rationing, which in turn could cause the collapse of energy intensive industries
• Rapidly declining global Stock Market values. The USA NASDAQ is down 18% from its August 2022 peak

The Company Board Director Roles and Responsibilities course will explain your legal responsibilities and provide guidance as to how best to address these issues. These courses will also help you generally to understand and better fulfil your Roles and Responsibilities as a Company Director.

All of these are matters that Board Directors throughout the world need to be actively considering. The UK Companies Act 2006 specifically requires Directors to take the long term consequences (as well as the short and medium term) into account when considering any Board decision. Updating the Risk Register today in a meaningful way is likely to be a particular difficult job.

Boards need to think about these issues in three groupings:

• First level thinking covers the direct impact on your own organisation
• Second level thinking covers the direct impact upon your customers and considers the implications for your own organisation
• Third level thinking covers the direct impact upon Government and your suppliers and considers the consequent implications for your own organisation

The Company Board Director Roles and Responsibilities course will explain your legal responsibilities and duties as a Director. As well as provide guidance as to how to approach these issues.