Expert Group Roundtable and Reflectionof the Executive Panel 2019

DIGITAL GOVERNANCE

CONSULTANTS IN EXECUTIVE SEARCH

CONTENTS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ................................................................................................................ 1 MORE THAN A BUZZWORD 1

THE 10TH HITCHMAN EXECUTIVE PANEL AT A GLANCE ............................................. 3 AND HOW THE EXPERTS ASSESS THE RESULTS 3

A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF CHANGE ................................................................................. 8 IN THE BEGINNING IS THE WORD 8

THE PANEL OF EXPERTS ...................................................................................................................... 13 MAYA BUNDT 13 ANDREJ GOLOB 14 STEFAN MICHEL 15 DORIAN SELZ 16 MARIANNE WILDI 17

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................. 18 THE ROY C. HITCHMAN TEAM ...............................................................................................................................20

PROF. DR. MICHAEL HILB FROM DIGITYZER .............................................................................................20

THE HITCHMAN EXECUTIVE PANEL ................................................................................................................20

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MORE THAN A BUZZWORD It is turning the corporate world upside down and is stopping at hardly any industry: digital transformation is everywhere, to the extent that some people are fed up with the term. At the same time, it is clear to an over-whelming majority of board members (92 percent) and representatives of operational management (84 percent) that there is no escape and that their companies are already in the thick of it. And just under a quarter of the representatives of both categories are aware of the fact that their business model's chances of survival in five years' time could be at risk if their com-panies do not succeed in getting into the digital fast lane. These are two results of this year's survey by Roy C. Hitchman AG in cooperation with the Digityzer of Prof. Dr. Michael Hilb on the topic of 'Digital Governance', in which about 350 executives of companies from various industries partici-pated. But their answers also show that the power that is turning the world upside down right now remains strangely elusive in its meaning and impact. This uncertainty seems to undermine the confidence of managers and work-forces. Is it about more than just another hype that can be sat out without much risk? Is the old world perhaps simply being given a technological facelift with lots of buzz and noise? Or are these new ways of thinking and IT tools really the midwives of a working method and corporate culture that is completely new? The aim of the digital governance survey was to gain a better understanding of how boards of directors and operational management perceive and sup-port the transformation processes in their companies. Roy C. Hitchman AG presented the somewhat sobering survey results to a panel of experts, who commented and classified them. This panel, in which both the theoretical (academia) and the practical (corporate world) points of view, the established corporate world and the start-up scene, the board of directors and the operative management were represented, was composed as follows: Maya Bundt, Head of Cyber & Digital Strategy at the reinsurance group Swiss Re and member of the Board of Directors of Valiant; Andrej Golob, member of the Board of Directors and member of the Finance and Strategy Committee of Raiffeisen Switzerland; Stefan Michel, Professor at IMD and Member of the Board of Directors of Bossard; Dorian Selz, Co-Founder and CEO of Squirro, provider of AI solu-tions in the financial sector; Marianne Wildi, CEO of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG (more detailed information on the five experts can be found on page 13 onwards).

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The discussion was moderated by Roman Huber, Partner at Roy C. Hitch-man AG, and Michael Hilb, Titular Professor at the University of Fribourg/ Switzerland and Founder and CEO of DBP Group. This document summa-rizes the main lines of the experts' discussion.

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THE 10TH HITCHMAN EXECUTIVE PANEL AT A GLANCE AND HOW THE EXPERTS ASSESS THE RESULTS More than 92 percent of the board members and 84.4 percent of the operational managers surveyed state that their companies are undergoing a digital transformation. For the vast majority, the process has been underway for several years, and for less than one fifth, it has only recently begun. By contrast, a good half of the boards of directors in the TIME sector (Telecommunications, Inter-net, Media, Entertainment) consider the process to be completed.

The experts agree that no industry is immune to the digital transformation. It is equally clear to them that not all sectors are equally under pressure. For print media or the retail trade, the search for a sustainable business model has long since become a question of survival. Swiss banks, on the other hand, are currently still in a relatively comfortable position thanks to the "state-guaranteed species protection of high market entry barriers" (Dorian Selz). For Fintech, banker Marianne Wildi explains, Switzerland is too small. But since the success of the Banking-App Revolut, which no Swiss bank had expected, a certain “sense of urgency" is now also noticeable in the banking industry: "The killer app is still missing, but that it will not be long in coming is now more likely than ever." But, as Maya Bundt points out, not every board member and every opera-tional manager thinks that "being in the middle of the transformation" is necessarily the big transformation project. Andrei Golob sees things simi-larly: "Many people confuse the digitalization of certain processes with the digital transformation. To put it more sharply, in Dorian Selz's words: "'It's already done' is for me the statement of a turkey that will end up in the oven by Thanksgiving at the latest. One can only be grateful for such fallacies: they increase the chances for innovative new companies."

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23.75 percent of the board members surveyed are of the opinion that the survival of their companies is no longer guaranteed in 5 years without transformation. 17.5 percent believe they can still take a good 10 years for the process. Another 43.75 percent consider the transformation to be at least very important for the competitiveness of their companies. The operational managers surveyed are of a similar opinion.

In the experience of the expert panel, many companies find it very difficult to assess the speed and long-term effects of changes. Dorian Selz notes a tendency to overestimate the short-term effects, but underestimate the long-term effects, and recalls the example of the CD shop "City Disc": For a long time it was impossible to imagine Bahnhofstrasse without it - and then, after years of crisis, it finally failed due to the upheaval in the music industry and ended up with an online presence only. For Andrej Golob, the succes-sion of short-lived hypes increases the danger that companies will lull themselves into a false sense of security after a while - and then underesti-mate the really fundamental change processes. The bursting of the dotcom bubble has shown how fatal this can be. Finally, Maya Bundt points out that this fallacy may also have to do with the fact that "no longer viable" is not necessarily synonymous with "dead": "Most companies, even if they have pushed themselves out into the cold with the wrong strategy, may be on a downward spiral in five years, but they are still there."

Just under 27 percent of board members see by far the greatest threat to their companies in new market partici-pants. For about 24 percent of operational managers, it is rather the lack of agility of the organization that is the problem.

According to the experts, the fact that the board of directors and opera-tional management disagree on this point is due to their different roles, which are also defined by law: "It is the task of the board of directors to look ahead and ask itself questions that the operational level does not ask and does not have to ask", says Stefan Michel, "it is the board of directors that should recognize the danger of a 'Kodak case' in good time". At Hypothe-karbank Lenzburg, this type of strategic foresight, for example, means that the board of directors uses a thought experiment to jointly develop visions, analyze perspectives and identify challenges: "It can be an exercise like this:

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Imagine the bank has died - what do the bereaved say at the funeral, what do they miss," Marianne Wildi says.

Andrej Golob sees a possible bottleneck in the implementation of such stra-tegic insights: "There is a danger that CEOs will attach too little importance to agility. But being agile means much more than working faster with the same methods. You can't do it without rethinking."

Almost 42 percent of the surveyed board members feel comfortable with the topic of digital transformation, a good 51 percent feel more or less comfortable. Finally, a minority of 6.5 percent feel uncomfortable having to set the course here.

The panel of experts sees this result as a possible overestimation of their own abilities and thus an underestimation of the challenges of digitization - because what you don't see coming doesn't cause discomfort. At Raif-feisen, the board of directors is much more critical of its own "digital expertise," says Andrej Golob: "We are clearly aware of the fact that we have not yet got a grip on this issue.” Maya Bundt, on the other hand, attributes the malaise to the fact that some members of the board of directors are perhaps more interested in their supervisory role than in the role of ques-tioning and strategic thinking ahead. In any case, the experts consider it extremely important for a purposeful discussion that administrative bodies firstly define precisely at what level they are to discuss and what the discussion is to achieve. And secondly, to clarify exactly which competencies are available in the committee and where know-how from outside must be obtained: "The level of the discussion must be clear," says Stefan Michel, and Marianne Wildi adds: "Replacing a telephone system is not yet a digital transformation.” Wildi also advocates consulting experts from outside the industry: "When it comes to changing the bank's business model, it's not primarily commercial and financial experts or computer scientists who help us move forward. Because then it's much more about willingness to change, a new mindset, openness and the ability to cooperate. And that's where the experience we have gained in other industries, such as print media or e-commerce, brings us much more."

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Almost 77 percent of the boards of directors attribute the necessary qualifications for effective governance of the digital transformation to their committee. Only just over 50 percent of operational managers share this self-assessment by the board of directors.

For Dorian Selz, the self-assessment of the boards of directors is tanta-mount to their overestimating themselves. However, he is not surprised: "The hype surrounding the big tech companies and the many up-and- coming start-ups has led to digitalization being elevated to a lifestyle. There's a lot of boasting around," he says and observes that today's experts are all over the place: "It starts with the big consulting firms, which have suddenly all become block chain experts overnight."

Maya Bundt is somewhat less strict: "The board of directors itself does not need to know all the answers, but it must be able to ask the right questions and thus acquire the knowledge needed to make strategically meaningful decisions”, she says. It is therefore also exceptionally important that the board has sufficient diversity and experience: "If this is the case, the board of directors as a group can confidently consider itself to be sufficiently qual-ified.” For Marianne Wildi, too, the quality of a board of directors depends on the right combination of people and mindsets: "It is fatal when decisions are delegated to individual board members because they are considered to be experts in a particular field."

A good 37 percent of the operational management who deny management the competence to shape change justify this with the latter's lack of understanding of the relevant technologies (51.5 percent).

The expert panel also considers technological understanding to be an important prerequisite. Opinions differ though, on what is meant by this. Marianne Wildi is of the opinion that in the case of the blockchain, for example, it is sufficient for a board member to understand how the block chain could influence the business model of his company: "He does not need to know its mechanics, nor does he need to be able to program it.” For Dorian Selz, on the other hand, profound technological knowledge is necessary, especially in the case of the "over-hyped blockchain": "Only when I have gotten my hands dirty with this technology can I decide whether it is relevant for me or not – neither intuition nor a few glossy brochures or the PowerPoint presentations of so-called experts are sufficient here."

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For Maya Bundt, experience in implementing technology is not to be neglected either: "That's where the problems arise, that's where more than pure knowledge is needed to avoid pitfalls."

A good 55 percent of board members see themselves as proactive sparring partners but leave the lead in the governance of the digital transformation to the manage-ment. Just under 25 percent see the board of directors as the driving force and pacesetter for the transfor-mation in the lead.

Maya Bundt considers it essential for the management and the board of directors to move in the same direction: "It is therefore extremely important for the board of directors to select the executive board in such a way that the strategy it has defined can be implemented." For Stefan Michel, the strengths and weaknesses of the management determine how the board of directors should behave here: "Where necessary, it must compensate, must eliminate resistance and blind spots and correct wrong priorities." For Marianne Wildi, it should also clearly communicate internally and externally that it supports the policy of the management.

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A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF CHANGE IN THE BEGINNING IS THE WORD The lexicon of the online magazine gründerszene.de defines it as follows: "Digital transformation refers to an ongoing process of change based on digital technologies that affects all aspects of a company." In the survey conducted by Roy C. Hitchman AG, digital transformation is the entirety of strategies and activities that allow a company to develop a sustainable business model with the help of new digital technologies. Thus, we already have two definitions. Here's a third one: "For me, transformation is what I absolutely must change in the next few years," Stefan Michel says. And adds: "Others say: transformation indicates a business model renewed from scratch." In the end, every CEO and every board member defines the term in such a way that it fits in with their agenda, Michel says: "Because then you feel in control."

In contrast, Maya Bundt's experience at reinsurer Swiss Re is that digital transformation has long been in existence there as part of a planned change management process that is jointly supported by the operational and stra-tegic levels, without calling a spade a spade: "What will the business model of the future look like? How can new technologies support it? How can we better assess risks in the future and better meet the expectations of our customers? These are all questions that we deal with every day. But I have never heard the term digital transformation internally," says Bundt.

BOSSARD: WE DO NOT LEAVE A SINGLE SCREW LOOSE

The Bossard Group deals in screws. Digitalization - keyword: 3D printer - could make screws superfluous. For the board of directors, of which Stefan Michel is a member, this is an exciting opportunity to consider future business areas: The most obvious application of 3D printing would certainly be printing screws. But you could also print the whole coffee machine. Screws would thus become superfluous, Bossard too - a typical "Kodak case".

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Scenarios like these help to "no longer think only in terms of screws", as Michel puts it, but to look for ways to make the company fit for a completely new market. In this case, buying 3D printer companies and investing in 3D printing services and products. This was against the initial resistance of the technical team, who considered 3D printing to be too expensive, technically underdeveloped and therefore impractical. Typical "Kodak case" arguments, as they were put forward by Kodak technicians against digital photography.

"It is not only the task of the board of directors to think ahead, but also to ensure that management does not focus too much on the present," says Michel and: "If it doesn't hurt, then it is not a real decision and not a strat-egy, but at best planning or wasted time".

In the case of Marianne Wildi, it was the board of directors that insisted about five years ago on explicitly anchoring the digital transformation in a "digital strategy": She herself would have integrated the digitization trend into the overall strategy as normal and not formulated a separate strategy, says Wildi, "because we had long since started to think about the further development of strategy and business model." Despite this, the call for a Chief Digital Officer and a specific digitization strategy was heard shortly afterwards: "Using a CDO is like learning to ride a bike with training wheels," says Wildi, "you have to get rid of these small wheels, and if you can already ride a bike, you don't really need them." Subsequently, the board of directors and executive management jointly developed the wording and objectives in workshops, integrated them into the overall strategy and launched the necessary strategic initiatives. Thus, there is now a common understanding at strategic and operational level, which can now be communicated inter-nally and externally.

Very often digital transformation is primarily a question of communication. This can lead to the dangerous illusion of being able to master a process of change that is essential for the survival of one's own company by means of buzzwords alone. But while hype wording can hide the fact that everything actually remains the same, its absence does not mean that the company is already on the right track.

A NEW MINDSET Digital transformation requires more than words. It can only be successful with a new approach, a new culture, a new mindset, which, instead of relying on isolated solutions, relies on comprehensive and future-oriented strategic considerations, which not only allows risk and innovation, but also demands them. Such change takes time: "At least five years," Maya Bundt estimates. It needs the dialogue between the board of directors and operational management. And it needs facilitators: "Just as the board of directors must have the necessary understanding of technology, this board also requires sufficient experience in the implementation of major change processes," says Andrej Golob, "because this cannot be delegated or initiated from outside."

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Marianne Wildi also emphasizes how important it is that the strategic and operational levels pull together: "This is a question of debate, of being honest with each other, of the interplay of strengths and weaknesses. At Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, this works because the board of directors and management are involved in shaping the transformation process and work together to achieve the goal of moving the bank forward."

The fact that everyone in the company is at approximately "the same mental point" is also extremely important for Dorian Selz: "Only in this way can one succeed in communicating one's own vision to the market and building something unique." However, in smaller companies, where the separation between the role of the board of directors and the role of the operational management is not quite so clear, Selz sees the danger that this commu- nication of the strategic vision does not get enough attention in day-to-day business: "Then it becomes something that is presented to the staff at the Christmas dinner between two courses."

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A CRISIS In change management, there are two ways in which change happens, Stefan Michel, who lectures at IMD in Lausanne, explains. It is the famous carrot-and-stick approach: things move forward when the psychological or economic incentives or, on the other hand, the level of suffering are great enough: "And what works best is both at the same time," Michel says and continues: Pressure is perception, and according to Churchill's motto "Never waste a good crisis", this can be consciously controlled: Every crisis is, at the same time, an opportunity to take up a fight that can be won. And change, however risky it may be, is sometimes the only way forward.

Dorian Selz sees this even more radically: the approach of the pirates who burned their own ships behind them as soon as they had taken possession of a hijacked ship seems to him to be most effective here: "This is 'carrot-and-stick' concentrated: The reward is the new ship (the new business model), the stick the fact that there is no going back. This takes courage." In large corporations or more managerially managed organizations, this is usually missing because monetary success is often the most important parameter there, i.e, the carrot is in the completely wrong place: "You should not be surprised if no change takes place."

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local.ch: THE SLEDGE-HAMMER APPROACH

In 2000, PubliGroupe was still one of the strongest forces in the Swiss media industry. Fifteen years later it was sold for CHF 500 million. Half of this was accounted for by the valuation of the company's own shares in the local.ch search portal, around 200 million by the real estate portfolio - the bottom line is that the once powerful PubliGroupe was ultimately worth just under CHF 50 million. According to Dorian Selz, one of the things the management had failed to understand was the fact that the Internet would turn the entire industry inside out. Instead of taking them seriously, innovations were marginalized so that they did not interfere with the core business. On the other hand, the online search portal local.ch, outsourced to the edge of the existing organizational structure and rebuilt there on a greenfield site, so to speak, secured Swiss market leadership within four years: "Without much consideration for the existing business, we combined the agile new (local.ch) with the market recognition of the existing (Yellow Pages/Directories)," says Selz, co-founder and until 2009 CEO of local.ch.

FEAR IS A BAD ADVISOR Even if not all companies approach the digital transformation with the sledge-hammer: In the survey conducted by Roy C. Hitchman AG, only 37 percent of operational managers answered the question of whether employees are looking forward to their professional future with joy and confidence in the affirmative. Just under 57.5 percent display at least a "conditional confidence", while 3.4 percent are pessimistic. A survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation yields very similar results: Around a third of the Europeans surveyed see the past in a far rosier light than the present or the future.

Since change automatically always entails a redistribution of property, power and status, the panel can understand this diffuse fear. For Dorian Selz, to some extent it echoes the lamentation of a population that is still very privileged compared to other countries. He himself only takes people into his company "who think it's great to get on a plane with an uncertain destination." Maya Bundt, on the other hand, finds the number of positive mentions surprisingly high: "I find this a very honest answer: because it is clear that there will be winners and losers in the digital transformation, and that this scares some people."

In view of the mood in operational management, the experts see it as the duty of the board of directors to monitor proactively the effects of the change: "Let's not fool ourselves: Digitalization will accelerate the growing differentiation of our capitalist society," says Dorian Selz.

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This task is not easy - even with an ideally composed board, the assessment of the future remains "a poking about in the dark", which makes it difficult to set incentive structures correctly and to fathom the consequences of the development on the daily business. In order to counter the fears of the operative level, Marianne Wildi would like to see a board of directors that has the courage to try out new things and allow mistakes to happen: "Inno-vation that goes beyond the product is created where it is possible to allow organizational changes, to cleverly expand the existing by new things, to expand solid things by creative things, to expand strong, existing things by small and agile things. This is one of the keys to successfully shaping trans-formation processes."

FINSTAR – OPEN FOR NEW THINGS

Under the leadership of Marianne Wildi, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg has created the first open banking platform in Switzerland, thus paving the way for the networked future of the financial industry. The modular in-house Finstar core banking system, equipped with open interfaces (so-called Open API), allows Fintech companies and other service providers to dock on to Finstar and exchange data with the system. At the end of 2017, the bank was presented with the "Euro Finance Tech Award" for this. Since then it has consistently continued to work on its pioneering role: Since early 2019, the Fintech Ecosystem has also become a platform for transactions with crypto currencies. For this, the Lenzburg-based banking institute has entered into a strategic cooperation with SEBA Crypto AG, one of the first crypto banks in Switzerland.

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THE PANEL OF EXPERTS MAYA BUNDT HEAD OF CYBER & DIGITAL STRATEGY AT THE REINSURANCE GROUP SWISS RE AND MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF VALIANT "When implementing technology, experience is required. This is extremely important. Knowledge alone cannot avoid all traps."

Dr. Maya Bundt heads the Cyber Group in Swiss Re's Reinsurance Business Unit and is responsible for the development and imple-mentation of the global cyber strategy. Bundt also heads the Cyber Working Group of the Swiss Insurance Association, is a member of the Cyber Security Commission of ICTswitzer-land and of the Global Future Councils for Cybersecurity of the World Economic Forum. Bundt studied environmental sciences at the University of Bayreuth and received her doctorate in soil physics from ETH Zurich. She started her career as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.

"It's hard to give up something that's still going strong despite all the warning signs."

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ANDREJ GOLOB MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MEMBER OF THE FINANCE AND STRATEGY COMMITTEE OF RAIFFEISEN SWITZERLAND "Being agile doesn't mean working faster with the same methods."

Andrej Golob has been a member of the Board of Directors of Raiffeisen Switzerland since 2018 and Country Head of Xerox Switzerland since November 2019. As Vice President Busi-ness Development and member of the Xerox DACH Management Board, he is responsible for driving the company's entry into new business areas. Golob, who holds a Master in Business Administration from the University of St. Gall (HSG), has more than 25 years of experi-ence in the IT and financial services industry. For many years he held leading roles at Hewlett-Packard and Swisscom and was re-sponsible for several major transformations. In 2015, he became CEO of the UBS spin-off Equatex and two years later set up his own company, karldigital, which supports manag-ers in the digital transformation.

"A change in culture can neither be initiated from the outside nor delegated internally by the board of direc-tors to the CEO."

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STEFAN MICHEL PROFESSOR AT THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT (IMD) AND BOARD MEMBER OF BOSSARD "The board of directors must ask the questions that the operative management cannot ask themselves because they are fully occupied with the day-to-day business."

Stefan Michel is a professor at the Interna-tional Institute for Management Development (IMD), the renowned private business school in Lausanne, where he heads the Executive MBA and lectures on marketing and service man-agement in particular. Michel, a former hotel owner and young entrepreneur, also sits on the board of directors of several companies, namely the listed Bossard Holding AG in Zug, which has a turnover of CHF 800 million and is twice as profitable as the industry average.

"If it doesn't hurt, then it's not a real decision or strategy, but at best planning or wasted time."

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DORIAN SELZ CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF SQUIRRO "When pirates took possession of a captured ship, they sank their own ship. A company should do the same with its old business model. For if there is no going back, then change will succeed."

Dr. Dorian Selz is CEO and co-founder of the Zurich-based start-up Squirro, a solution pro-vider in the fields of context intelligence and insights with offices in New York, Singapore, London and Munich. Squirro supplies a Big Data app that extracts usable insights from unstructured data. Selz is a "serial founder": In addition to Squirro, he also co-founded Namics and the Swiss search platform local.ch. He was Partner and COO at Namics, the largest e-business consultancy in Switzerland and Germany. Dorian Selz holds a doctorate from the University of St. Gall and a master's degree in economics from the University of Geneva.

"'The digital transformation is already complete' is for me the statement of a turkey that ends up in the oven on Thanksgiving at the latest."

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MARIANNE WILDI CEO OF HYPOTHEKARBANK LENZBURG AG "Setting a CDO is like learning to ride a bike with support wheels. At some point you must get rid of the small wheels. And if you can ride a bike already, you don't need them."

Marianne Wildi, Swiss bank manager and Fintech pioneer, has been Chairwoman of the Executive Board of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg since 2010. She joined the company in 1984 after graduating from commercial college, and in 2001 she was promoted to deputy head of information technology. Under Wildi's leader-ship, the bank consistently relied on technical innovation, which earned it the title of "Switzer-land's most digital bank" (finews.ch) in 2016. Wildi, "the most unusual banker in Switzer-land" (Schweizer Illustrierte) is the only woman on the board of directors of the Swiss Bankers Association.

"Replacing a telephone system is not yet a digital transformation. When it comes to changing the bank's business model, it is not primarily commercial and finan-cial experts or information scientists who help us move forward. Because then it's much more about willingness to change, a new mindset, openness and the ability to cooperate. And that's where the experience we have gained in other industries such as print media or e-com-merce brings us much more".

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CONCLUSION ROY C. HITCHMAN AG AND DIGITYZER The fact that more than 92 percent of board members and 84 percent of operational management confirm that their companies are in a digital trans-formation shows that the topic has broad strategic relevance. The fact that almost a quarter of the board members and operational managers surveyed are of the opinion that their companies will no longer be viable in 5 years without transformation shows the urgency of setting the strategic course now. However, the fact that only just under 42 percent of board members feel very comfortable with the topic is a cause for concern that the neces-sary strategic decisions are not being prepared and taken promptly on a broad basis.

The board of directors and operational management disagree on the greatest danger facing companies in the context of digitization. For the boards of directors, it is above all new market participants that threaten the companies, and for the operational management it is the lack of agility to take advantage of opportunities that arise. A synchronization would be desirable here, because the (counter-)measures for strengthening/securing the future are not the same. This difference can be explained by the differ-ent perspectives of the two bodies: While the board of directors focuses on long-term development, operational management also focuses on the implementation of this development.

Both sides recognize that the Board of Directors must play an active role in the transformation process. Thus, the majority of the boards of directors see themselves as proactive sparring partners for the transformation and operative management in the lead. The fact that even almost a quarter of the boards of directors see themselves as the driving force behind the transformation is laudable, but it can lead to tensions, irritations and discussions about competencies with operational management and the workforce.

The fact that the boards of directors attribute the qualification necessary for effective governance of the digital transformation to the overall boards with almost 77 percent is not only in conflict with the statements of the operational management, which confirms this qualification only to a good 50 percent, but also with our research of the profiles of the boards of directors of companies listed on the Swiss stock exchange. A well-founded understanding and joint discussions of what digital transformation can mean could lead to more realism and consequently to better results.

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But this also requires time for reflection and discussion in the closely-timed board and management agendas. If boards of directors and operational management take this time to openly discuss the opportunities and challenges of the future, an important foundation for a successful digital transformation will be laid. Editorial and summary: Christine D'Anna-Huber, cdh Texte & Kommunikation Paradiso, December 2019 © Roy C. Hitchman AG - All rights reserved

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THE ROY C. HITCHMAN TEAM Roy C. Hitchman AG is an independent, partnership-managed, international executive search boutique based in Zurich and specializes in the systematic direct search, assessment, recruitment and retention of executives who make a difference in the digital economy. From right to left: Patrick Dümmler, Knowledge Partner; Claudia Nussberger, Partner; Roman Huber, Managing Partner; Sandro Rüegger, Partner; Roy C. Hitchman, Founder and Knowledge Partner; Irene Müller, Office Manager; (not on photo:) Viktoria Köstler, Office Manager.

PROF. DR. MICHAEL HILB FROM DIGITYZER

Michael Hilb is the Founder and CEO of DBP Group, a group of companies focused on developing digital growth platforms in Asia and Europe, which includes Digityzer. He is a member of the supervisory boards of Klingelnberg AG, the IMP-HSG and the Board Foundation and Titular Professor at the University of Fribourg/Switzerland, lecturing on strategy, entrepreneurship and corporate governance at the University of St. Gall, the University of Zurich and the Singapore Management University.

THE HITCHMAN EXECUTIVE PANEL

The Hitchman Executive Panel is a platform for opinion-forming and at the same time an online tool for surveying top executives in Switzerland. You can find the detailed presentation of the results of the 10th Hitchman Executive Panel on the topic of "Digital Governance" on our website: www.roy-hitchman.ch

Roy C. Hitchman AG, Bellerivestrasse 3, CH-8008 Zurich Phone +41 43 499 12 50, info@hitchman.ch, www.roy-hitchman.ch

Prof. Dr. Michael Hilb, DBP Group Phone +41 76 222 44 52, hilb@dbp.group, www.dbp.group