Diligent Launches Modern Governance to Address Dangerous Governance Deficits and Announces New Modern Governance Summit

Industry leader launches Nominations and Governance application to arm CEOs and board members with information that activists and proxy holders use to target them

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Diligent Corporation launched a new category, called modern governance, designed to provide leaders with the missing key to bring governance into the digital age, along with new technology and a summit to support this well-designed system. Modern governance is the practice of empowering leaders with technology, insights, and processes to fuel good governance that organizations require to thrive and endure.

Modern governance helps organizations address governance deficits. A governance deficit means an organization lacks the security, foresight, and accountability to withstand the onslaught of contemporary challenges – such as activist investors, cyber risk, regulation, diversity and global uncertainty.

Feedback from Diligent’s 16,000 clients and the 600,000 leaders who use its technology – including more than 50% of the Fortune 1000, 70% of the FTSE 100, and 65% of the ASX – sparked the need for rethinking how companies and their boards should approach governance to navigate today’s complex landscape.

In fact, new insights revealed by the Diligent Institute identified that governance deficits across more than a dozen public companies have cost shareholders more than $490 billion in value one year after the crises, while good governance has fueled companies to outperform lower-ranking peers by 15%. Regulatory mishaps, cyber-security breaches, or undetected flaws in corporate culture caused by governance deficits carry long-lasting effects; according to the above-mentioned research, companies with governance shortfalls still underperformed their industry sectors two years after the incident by an average of 45%.

“The hundreds of billions of dollars in losses from corporate crises underscore the risks of operating with a governance deficit and highlight the growing need for leaders to embrace solutions that help them turn governance into competitive advantage,” said Diligent CEO Brian Stafford. “Modern governance empowers organizations to keep up with today’s fast-changing landscape and equips board members with the right information at the right time to mitigate risks and seize new opportunities. The impact that good governance has not just on company performance but on jobs and resources is enormous and Diligent is fortunate to support so many leaders at a time when their work is challenging and the stakes are high.”

Modern governance empowers today’s boards and management teams to achieve key outcomes:

• Allowing leaders to more quickly spot risks and identify opportunities to outperform the competition while making their organization both nimble and ethical
• Helping board members be more engaged partners who can act like radar on the industry and serve as valuable advisors to executives
• Centralizing critical data and protecting your organization’s most valuable information while enabling secure collaboration among leaders

The world’s only comprehensive platform to enable and support modern governance, Diligent is also unveiling a new governance application called Nominations to empower Nominations and Governance Committees to leverage the same information that proxy advisors, shareholders and potential activist investors already access, which is a capability that is critical to good governance practices in companies. The Nominations and Governance application not only includes data on your boards skill composition and compares it to peers but it also includes an easily searchable database of other board members and executes to supplement the nominations process.

On the heels of CEO Brian Stafford’s book, Governance in a Digital Age, Diligent will also host the first-ever Modern Governance Summit for governance professionals looking to help their organizations compete more effectively and seize new opportunities, while doing the right thing for stakeholders, staff, and the communities where they do business. The summit will be held in Orlando, Florida from September 8-13, and will feature knowledge-packed learning and networking opportunities with key leaders in the field and luminaries of the category.

Learn more about modern governance at www.moderngovernance.com and register for the Modern Governance Summit today at www.moderngovernancesummit.com.

About Diligent

Diligent is the pioneer in modern governance. We empower leaders to turn governance into a competitive advantage through unparalleled insight and highly secure, integrated SaaS applications, helping organizations thrive and endure in today’s complex, global landscape. Our trusted, cloud-based applications streamline the day-to-day work of board management and committees, support collaboration and secure information sharing throughout the organization, manage subsidiary and entity data, and deliver the insights and information leaders need to mitigate governance deficits and seize new opportunities.

The largest global network of corporate directors and executives, Diligent is relied on by more than 16,000 organizations and 650,000 leaders in over 90 countries. With award-winning customer service across the globe, Diligent serves more than 50% of the Fortune 1000, 70% of the FTSE 100, and 65% of the ASX.

Visit www.diligent.com to learn how modern governance helps you outperform your peers and the competition.

Contacts

Diligent Corporation
Greg Nyhan, 646-215-6884
[email protected]

This article published with permission from Business Wire