JORDI CANALS
IESE Foundation Chair in Corporate Governance
The global economy and the business context continue to be shaped by significant technological, geopolitical and social disruptions worldwide. In their efforts to support their companies and promote effective governance, boards of directors are expected to play an active role in offering strategic direction, supporting and collaborating with the CEO and the senior management team, and ensuring long-term value creation. Board directors need to foster a deep understanding of these challenges and how they impact their firms, while developing practical wisdom necessary to work with the CEO and senior management team in addressing them and making critical decisions for their firms’ survival and success.
With the goal of understanding how boards of directors are diagnosing and tackling major challenges, the IESE Center for Corporate Governance designed the 2026 IESE Survey of Boards of Directors. This year’s survey covered five critical governance areas: 1) how boards approach the AI challenge, including its strategic relevance, adoption, governance and impact on value creation; 2) the sources and implications of new geopolitical risks, as well as their impact on corporate strategy and resilience; 3) board–shareholder engagement, including both the main obstacles to such engagement and the areas of greatest interest for investors; 4) board dynamics and effectiveness, including the indispensable collaboration of the board with the CEO, as well as the challenges associated with CEO succession planning; and 5) the integration of sustainability and climate issues into board agendas and corporate priorities.
The survey gathered 130 responses from CEOs and board members across 24 countries and 18 industries. Key takeaways included:
- While AI is a strategic priority, 55% of directors indicated that it was not yet delivering value to their companies. Boards primarily focus on the use of AI in relation to cost optimization (52%) and customer related outcomes (47%), placing less emphasis on new business creation (30%).
- Board involvement with AI remains limited, except for some AI risk governance.
- Geopolitics represents a critical concern for boards, with government policies’ effectiveness and nationalist trade policies identified as key risks. Boards favor regional business strategies, with 72% of companies focusing activities on their home region.
- Companies are taking steps to strengthen resilience in the face of geopolitical risks. About 62% reported that they are reviewing corporate strategy more often than in the past, while 53% were seeking deeper engagement with governments to better understand the global context. In addition, 56% were diversifying supply chains, with only 10% reporting that they are maintaining their supply chain structures.
- Respondents indicated that shareholder engagement with companies is mainly focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A; 78%), CEO succession (76%), and board composition (70%), with increasing attention paid to technology and cybersecurity (65%).
- Board–CEO collaboration (95%), time for strategic discussions (95%) and the role of the chair (94%) are considered the most critical drivers of board effectiveness.
- The main obstacles facing boards when it comes to tackling CEO succession are a lack of urgency (67%), unclear processes (54%) and close CEO–board ties (48%), which point to structural governance gaps.
- Sustainability is increasingly being embedded in governance, with 56% of boards integrating it into board agendas and 61% into business models. Moreover, 63% of directors agreed that corporate purpose and culture are key elements of defining sustainability goals.
The 2026 survey highlights several relevant issues for boards of directors. While the results do not offer specific solutions, they provide a useful benchmark to help inform boards’ perspectives on the disruptions their companies face.
Family Firms: Purpose, Economic Performance and Social Impact
In collaboration with the European Corporate Governance Institute, the IESE Center for Corporate Governance presents an e-book that compiles the key discussions and research insights from the latest edition of the corporate governance conference.
The IESE Center for Corporate Governance has been involved in the organization of two international conferences on relevant issues for the governance and management of companies in the current context, a joint collaboration of IESE and the Social Trends Institute. The first is "From Polarization to Understanding: Bridging Divides in Society", organized by professors John Almandoz and Jordi Canals that was held in New York on October 30-31, 2025. You can watch the summary video of the conference here. The second conference is "Building Bridges in a Fragmented World Economy: The Role of Companies and Business Leaders", organized by professors Sebastian Reiche, Yih-Teen Lee and Jordi Canals, that was held in Barcelona on April 27-28, 2026. You can watch the summary of the conference here.
A new ISS analysis of the 2026 European proxy season reveals that median CEO pay across the STOXX Europe 600 rose eighteen per cent over the 2021–2025 period. Overall shareholder support for remuneration proposals remains remarkably resilient, averaging ninety-five per cent across the region. Read the article here.
A recent OECD review of global capital markets highlights that despite widespread regulatory oversight for proxy advisors, very few jurisdictions require them to consider the specific local or operational context of individual companies. This lack of tailored evaluation often results in highly standardised voting recommendations. Read the article here.
A recent article by Davidson Heath and Christopher Mace examines the strategic role of public equity, revealing that going public does not simply raise capital but creates a new acquisition currency for subsequent mergers and acquisitions. Completed initial public offerings spike a firm's probability of executing acquisitions by twelve percentage points annually, with most transactions paid partially in stock. Read here.
IESE's recent research.
ORMAZABAL, G. (2026). Trust and credibility in sustainability reporting. Accounting and Business Research.
DAI, J., ORMAZABAL, G., PEÑALVA, F., RANEY, R. (2026). Mandatory investor disclosure, sustainability commitments, and portfolio decarbonization. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 81 (1), Article 101817.
BOULONGNE, R., YOUNG-HYMAN, T., BERRONE, P. (2026). Short-term demands and long-term commitments. A Temporal model of stakeholder governance. Academy of Management Journal.
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