Key Highlights
- Boards frequently adopt external practices without fully testing contextual fit
- Industry borrowing can sharpen governance or quietly dilute accountability
- Not all “best practices” translate across regulatory, cultural, or maturity differences
- Strong boards distinguish between inspiration and imitation
- Disciplined filtering of borrowed ideas protects long-term strategy
Boards rarely operate in isolation. Directors sit on multiple boards, attend global forums, and absorb ideas from peers across industries. From Silicon Valley governance models to private equity performance metrics, borrowing has become an accepted—and often encouraged—practice in modern boardrooms. But while cross-industry learning can be powerful, it also carries a quiet risk. Not every borrowed idea strengthens governance. Some dilute accountability, misalign incentives, or create expectations the organisation is not equipped to meet. The difference lies not in what boards borrow, but in how they decide what fits.
Why Boards Borrow in the First Place
Boards borrow because uncertainty is rising. Rapid technological shifts, regulatory pressure, talent volatility, and global competition leave directors searching for proven answers.
Common motivations include:
- Reducing perceived risk by following “what others are doing”
- Demonstrating modernity to investors and stakeholders
- Filling experience gaps during transformation or crisis
- Accelerating decision-making using ready-made frameworks
Borrowing, in this sense, feels efficient. It signals awareness and action. But efficiency can become complacency when context is ignored.
What Boards Commonly Borrow
Across industries, boards tend to borrow similar categories of ideas:
Governance Frameworks
Committees, charters, and oversight models from high-profile firms are frequently replicated, sometimes without adjusting for company size or complexity.
Performance Metrics
KPIs such as EBITDA focus, agile velocity, or quarterly OKRs are imported from unrelated sectors, often clashing with long-term value creation.
Culture Narratives
Concepts like “fail fast,” radical transparency, or flat hierarchies are borrowed without considering legacy culture or regulatory constraints.
Crisis Playbooks
Response models used in technology, finance, or startups are applied during leadership changes or downturns—sometimes prematurely.
Borrowing itself isn’t the issue. Uncritical borrowing is.
Where Borrowing Goes Wrong
Problems arise when boards mistake visibility for viability.
Borrowed practices fail when:
- The organisation lacks the operational maturity to support them
- Regulatory environments differ significantly
- Leadership capability does not match the borrowed model
- Time horizons are incompatible with business realities
For example, adopting aggressive performance incentives from private equity may drive short-term results—but destabilise talent and trust in a publicly listed or family-owned firm.
Similarly, copying digital-first governance models without foundational data discipline can create oversight blind spots rather than agility.
The Hidden Cost of Imitation
Imitation can weaken a board’s most important asset: judgment.
When directors lean too heavily on external models:
- Debate narrows instead of deepens
- Local intelligence is undervalued
- Dissent feels unnecessary because “this worked elsewhere”
- Accountability shifts from decision quality to precedent
Over time, boards stop asking whether an idea is right—and focus instead on whether it is popular.
That is when borrowed ideas quietly replace strategic thinking.
What Strong Boards Borrow Differently
Effective boards borrow selectively and deliberately.
They:
- Treat external ideas as inputs, not instructions
- Test assumptions against internal data and culture
- Pilot practices before formal adoption
- Adjust language and metrics to fit organisational reality
Strong boards also ask harder questions:
- What problem are we actually trying to solve?
- What conditions made this work elsewhere?
- What would failure look like in our context?
Borrowing becomes learning—not copying.
What Boards Should Avoid Borrowing
Certain elements rarely translate well across contexts:
- Cultural shortcuts that bypass trust-building
- Metric obsession disconnected from strategy
- Leadership myths that ignore organisational history
- Speed-focused models where stability is essential
Boards that resist these temptations protect coherence and credibility.
Disciplined Borrowing as a Governance Skill
In a connected world, boards cannot stop borrowing—and shouldn’t. But governance maturity is revealed in restraint, not adoption speed.
The best boards borrow with humility, curiosity, and discipline. They understand that context is not a footnote—it is the strategy.
Borrowed ideas should sharpen insight, not replace it.
