• Is our organisation truly customer-centric? For example, are we sufficiently focused on enhancing the customer experience? Is driving value for the customer central to all of our decision-making in sustaining the relevance of our business model and its underlying processes and in identifying and overcoming internal barriers to putting customer preferences and expectations first?
• Have we identified potential industry or market disruptions that may impact our strategy and business model? Have we played out the impact of these disruptive scenarios to understand the extent of their impact on our business and how best to counter them, including actions we should take near-term to prepare?
• Do we understand the most critical assumptions underlying our strategy, and are we monitoring the external and internal factors that could render one or more of those assumptions invalid?
• Do we have an early warning capability in place, such as a dashboard of vital signs or early alerts derived from ongoing analyses of disruptive scenarios and key assumptions underlying our strategy? Do we monitor the dashboard for changes in markets and customers as well as the economy and competitive environment, just as we monitor the execution of the strategy itself?
• Are we prepared to implement changes to our strategy and business model that may be necessary to respond to disruptive trends and events or when one or more of our strategic assumptions are no longer relevant? Do our decision-making processes support high-velocity, quality decisions that enable us to be agile and resilient?
• Do we have the leadership, talent and skills in place to navigate change and execute the necessary adjustments to our business model and strategy? If not, how are we filling the gaps to build and sustain a workforce that is resilient and equipped with diverse skills, perspectives and a high level of change readiness? Are we regularly assessing our digital capabilities as a core competency?
• Are we leveraging customer, market and other insights to inform data-driven decisions regarding customer preferences, competitor actions and operational improvements? Are feedback loops in place to engage customers, suppliers and other external parties that broaden employee participation, invigorate the innovation process and help eliminate unconscious bias in decision-making? 

• How is the organisation currently deploying and managing the opportunities and risks relating to generative AI? What governance structures do we have in place to enable experimentation with these capabilities and implementation of selected use cases while ensuring responsible deployment? What are the legal, regulatory and ethical issues we need to address? How are we sourcing and managing the integrity of the data used by our AI models?
• How does the organisation plan to use current and emerging forms of generative AI in the future as well as other AI-related systems, such as agentic AI? If we view AI deployment as more of a risk, is our perspective constraining our realisation of the opportunities these capabilities offer?
• What changes to our organisational culture, talent strategy and technology environment are needed to harness the full value of our AI investments? Do we have the talent and skills we need to succeed? Are we investing in ongoing training and development, including necessary upskilling, to realise fully the value proposition of our technology investments?

• Do we have a clear understanding of the lessons learned from our technology modernisation investments over recent years? Are we thinking out of the box and taking the best approach to modernise? For example, do we buy, build or deploy a hybrid approach? Do we have the right partners? Are we breaking down large investments into discrete, manageable components?
• Are there any barriers that impede our efforts to modernise our technology infrastructure? For example, if we face capital and resource constraints and/or scaling challenges, how are we addressing them? What is our plan for removing or overcoming any other barriers?
• What is the current level of technical debt associated with our organisation’s legacy systems? How do we assess the risks of our technical debt, particularly its impact on our ability to innovate and compete with digitally mature companies? What is our strategy for reducing our technical debt?
• What governance structures are used to evaluate and prioritise our modernisation initiatives?

• Are there any other barriers not referenced above that hamstring our ability to respond timely to industry disruptions? What is our plan for removing or overcoming these barriers?
• Does our talent strategy enable us to inculcate an innovative organisational culture that embeds innovation into our operating model and prioritises and rewards continuous learning, experimentation, creative thinking and risk-taking?

• Is agility a core mindset in our business? Are we creating flexibility and infusing agility into our operating principles and processes to navigate inevitable change in the markets we serve?
• What do our disruption-related concerns say about our need to improve our preparedness and response readiness? How would improvements to our ability to pivot our strategy, processes and organisational structures timely in response to new opportunities or threats translate to increased C-suite and boardroom confidence in our ability to manage disruption risk? For example, are we fostering lean behaviors with an open, flexible and empowering organisational structure and flat hierarchy? Does our structure and hierarchy drive efficiencies, accelerate innovation cycles, and facilitate collaboration, communication, transparency, rapid decision-making and customer-focused execution?
• What steps do we need to take to better integrate disruption risk into our organisation’s overall risk governance, e.g., scanning the business environment, assessing potential disruptive scenarios and developing actionable response plans to mitigate risks?

The need for strong board governance is clear as organisations in Singapore face the challenges of technology modernisation, disruption risks, and Gen AI technologies. The key takeaway from the 2025 Global Board Governance Survey is that disruptive leaders are not only more prepared for these challenges but also more adept at leveraging technology innovations for growth.

Organisations must prioritise agility, risk management, and customer-centricity to remain competitive. For board members and C-suite executives in Singapore, now is the time to strengthen governance frameworks and adopt strategies that will allow their companies to thrive in the face of disruption. Accelerate your organisation’s journey with Protiviti’s technology modernisation and AI services.

According to Protiviti’s 2025 Global Board Governance Survey, key priorities for boards include strategic planning and execution, risk management oversight, CEO and management succession planning, technology modernisation, and the integration of emerging technologies.

Over 75% of global organisations expect their business models to significantly evolve in the next three years. Singapore boards should strengthen scenario planning, build early warning systems for disruption, and embed agility and resilience in decision-making to stay competitive.

Boards in Singapore must actively integrate disruption risk into overall risk governance. This means overseeing innovation, technology investment, and culture transformation to ensure timely recognition and response to external market shifts.

Generative AI is seen as a major opportunity by leading companies but as a risk by laggards. Boards should oversee ethical AI deployment, ensure proper governance structures, and align AI strategies with innovation goals and risk tolerance.

An innovative, change-embracing culture is key. Disruptive leaders are five times less likely to cite talent or culture as barriers. Boards should drive a culture that values creative thinking, experimentation, and cross-functional agility.