Our annual analysis of how the Danish C25 companies report on how their boards consider the company’s purpose and ensure and promote a good corporate culture shows that this is still challenging for most boards.

On the positive side, companies have significantly improved how they define and report on company purpose since the Danish Corporate Governance Recommendation 2.1.1 was implemented in 2021. In 2021, few companies stated a purpose. Among those who did, several had a purpose focused on “earning money for the shareholders” with limited ambitions of serving other stakeholders or contributing to the community. When looking at how the companies describe their purposes in 2024, this has significantly changed for the better.

However, nearly all boards fail to report on what they have done to ensure and promote good corporate culture and values. Based on our practical experience working with boards, this challenge is less of a reporting problem and more because most boards still need to get into the rhythm of understanding, discussing, and deciding on how to work with the organizational cultural aspects.

Based on our experience working with boards, it is clear that some boards believe “culture” should be left to management. Other boards see the importance of understanding culture and ensuring its health but struggle to identify how to do that. This is a paradox, as all the boards we know agree that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and that unhealthy company culture can destroy a company.

So, what should boards do? Involve the Group HR, get a more detailed understanding of the People Engagement Studies, the 360 Degrees leadership evaluations, and the whistle-blower statistics. You could also ask us about our Cultural Behavioral Indicator Analysis (CBI), developed specifically to address this challenge for boards.

Further Insights: You can contact us here for further insights, such as additional benchmarks and examples of best practices from Danish and international companies.