Corporate culture has become a mainstream part of corporate governance. This is confirmed by the new draft UK Corporate Governance Code which enjoins boards to monitor culture to satisfy themselves that behaviour throughout the business is aligned with their company’s values. Where boards find misalignment, they should take corrective action.

Setting out the expectation is, however, the easy bit. Boards now have to work out what this means in practice and adjust their agendas accordingly. This involves developing a new and different agenda quite far removed from traditional governance which has been very much about putting the right structures and processes in place.