Iain Watson – Governance Now 2019 Speaker Interview
On the governance today and in the future
What are the most pressing governance challenges facing the culture sector today?
- Ensuring diversity of governing bodies
- Managing balance of skills on governing bodies
- Balancing mission vs enterprise
- Providing appropriate support to executive
- Need to respond to external factors may demand new skill sets – e.g. tax relief instead of grants
How has cultural governance changed in the last 10 years?
- Increased focus on business models
- Increased need for and use of trustee skills
- Move form ‘traditional oversight role’ to more enterprising
What’s the greatest opportunity that sector-wide good governance might bring?
- Increased diversity of sector
- Improved sustainability of sector
How do you see the governance of culture evolving over the next few years?
- Need to ensure that we can keep streamlining and focusing and avoid simply reporting ‘what we did on our holidays’
- Need to develop appropriate tools to make e.g risk management easier without getting into the detail that the executive need to manage – there is a danger of governance becoming an industry
What’s the future of cultural governance in one word?
- Opportunity
