Lessons learned for boards from SVB

When SVB collapsed on Friday, March 10 – spectacularly and spectacularly fast – one might have been forgiven for assuming that its Board was largely ignorant of – or negligent about – the situation at the bank. In fact, quite the opposite was true: SVB’s Board had already enlarged its Risk Committee, which met more than twice as frequently in 2022 as in previous years. Something else is at play here, something that runs much deeper than malfeasance or regulatory failures. In this brief introductory session, our team will talk about the challenges that are going unmet – Black Swans and their close relatives – and the structures and processes needed by Corporations and Boards to deal effectively with them. We’ll begin by exploring Black Swans, their nesting grounds, and the concept of antifragility. Next, we’ll engage in a hands-on scenario exercise to apply these concepts. And finally, we’ll introduce a second set of related concepts – the 4C Model and Intrapreneurial Capital – to illustrate new ways of thinking about Corporate and Board structures.