In an extensive report on the challenges facing organizations last year, Deloitte outlined the question of strategy and the board’s role in questioning and shaping it. While many strategy skeptics claim that organizations should focus on flexibility and adaptability in today’s volatile economic and political climate, Deloitte’s report writers argued that strategy is more important than ever in order to create a coherent response to sudden changes. The board’s responsibility is to question management’s strategy and task management with rethinking areas of the plan that come up short, not taking a heavy hand in actually strategizing. However, it is necessary for directors to demand strategies as well as assessments of their risks, costs, and opportunities.
