Good morning.
Today Fortune launches a new service, The Modern Board, in partnership with Diligent, which produces collaboration tools for boards. We’ll be upping our coverage of corporate board issues, spotlighting the most innovative boards, and launching a new hub focusing on board concerns, and a new newsletter serving the board community. You can find the hub here, and sign up for the newsletter here.
The reasons for this should be obvious. The three mega trends affecting all businesses—the explosion in business technology, the rising attention to stakeholder demands, and the rethinking of work and office—are heaping huge new burdens and responsibilities on corporate board members. The goal of The Modern Board is to help directors navigate those new demands, with an eye, as always, on making business better.
“I’ve been at Diligent for six years, and the role of the board director has gotten so much more complex and so much more intense over that period,” Brian Stafford, CEO of Diligent, told me yesterday. “Whether it is activist investors, regulators, or increasing shareholder pressure…whether it is the increased push for diversity, or the overwhelming pressure companies feel to make progress on ESG, or the digital transformation that has been accelerated by the pandemic, or the increased focus on personal safety…what used to be a four-times a year gig has turned into every month or every other month. Boards need information, guidance, insight, and they also require more knowledge and depth on how companies function. I see that continuing to escalate.”
Separately, with the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine for regular use yesterday, is it time for companies to mandate vaccines? Here’s a running list of those that have done so. You can add the Pentagon to the list, too.
And on the second anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s adoption of a new statement of corporate purpose that launched the move to “Stakeholder Capitalism,” Ellen McGirt and I interview the BRT’s own CEO, Joshua Bolten, to ask what really has changed. You can listen to the interview on our Leadership Next podcast, available on Apple and Spotify.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Chip shortage
A new COVID surge in Malaysia threatens to exacerbate the global semiconductor shortage. It's already forced Ford to suspend production of its F-150 pickup truck at a U.S. plant; key suppliers to the auto industry, such as STMicro and Infineon, have had to close Malaysian plants for sanitation after workers became infected. Fortune
Brexit problems
The forces of Brexit and COVID-19 have conspired to remove milkshakes and bottled drinks from all McDonald's outlets in Great Britain. The supply-chain problems are down to a lack of truck drivers—the many that came from the EU went back when the pandemic struck, and stayed. See also: the British meat industry turning to prisoners to plug their recruitment gap, and growing evidence that staff shortages are hitting the U.K.'s economic recovery. The Independent
COVID-19 and pregnancy
A new study suggest pregnant women with COVID-19 are 15 times more likely to die, and 22 times more likely to have a premature delivery, than those who are not infected. This is particularly worrisome because so many pregnant women have been avoiding vaccination due to concerns about insufficient safety data (health officials and experts say there's plenty of data now, and pregnant women should definitely get vaccinated.) Fortune
Boeing pressure
The FAA is looking into reports of Boeing employees facing undue pressure when handling safety matters, and finding it difficult to be transparent with regulators such as the agency itself. Boeing: "We have consistently reinforced with our team that delegated authority is a privilege and that we must work every day to be trusted with the responsibility." Wall Street Journal
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Racial justice
The murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests across the U.S. prompted corporate America to make unprecedented commitments about boosting racial justice. Collectively, the country's largest companies pledged at least $49.5 billion to addressing racial inequality. However, it turns out more than 90% of that sum was in loans or investments on which the companies could turn a profit. A relatively tiny $71 million went to organizations pushing criminal justice reform. Washington Post
European listings
European companies are flocking to U.S. stock exchanges for their listings—at the highest rate in two decades—due to the promise of higher valuations there. European exchanges are trying to lure them home, though. Fortune
British supermarkets
M&A in the U.K.'s supermarket industry may be heating up. The U.S. private equity firm Apollo Global Management is reportedly looking into a buyout of Sainsbury's—whose attempted merger with Asda was blocked by competition regulators—and there's a bidding war underway for competitor Morrison's. Fortune
Valneva vaccine
France's Valneva, which is making its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Scotland and has a big contract with the British government, has formally applied to have the jab authorized by the U.K. drug regulator. It's hoping for approval this year, and the move gave its shares a healthy pop. Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
