Self-assessment

An open, transparent and critical board room culture forms the basis for the Board of Directors’ annual review of its own performance and effectiveness. The Board of Directors evaluates its work and the performance of the Chairman. It conducts the self-assessment on the basis of questionnaires, which deal with the Board’s composition, organisation and processes, the Board’s responsibilities as well as with the focus areas and goals of the year under review. The topics are discussed and take-aways defined to be incorporated in the goals for the upcoming year. In addition, each Board committee annually reviews the adequacy of its composition, organisation and processes as well as the scope of its responsibilities, assesses their accomplishments and evaluates the achievement of the goals set and its performance.

In addition, an independent external consultant was engaged in 2019 to assess the effectiveness of the Board through one-on-one interviews with the Board members, with a focus on priority setting, committee work, relationship of the Board with senior management and Board culture. The advisor’s report served as a basis for the self-assessment discussion of the Board at the end of the year.

The self-assessments also form the basis for the Board’s succession planning, comprising the evaluation of the skills needed among the members of the Board of Directors and Board committees. Please refer to Election, succession planning, qualifications, training and term of office for an overview of the Board of Directors’ skills and competencies.