Didier Cossin

Professor of Governance and Finance, and Founder and Director of IMD Global Board Center

Didier Cossin is Professor of Governance and Finance, and Founder and Director of the IMD Global Board Center. He works with owners, boards, and senior leaders to help them improve organizational performance through best-in-class governance and decision making. He also holds the UBS Chair in Banking and Finance.

Cossin is the originator of the Four Pillars of Board Effectiveness methodology and an advocate of stewardship – the idea that leaders should aim to deliver positive long-term social and economic impact.

He is also focused on the governance of investments, including how ESG can be integrated in the investment process all the way through to asset allocations and not only in asset selection and engagement. Good governance transforms performance because it protects against downside risks, such as reputational risks and integrity risks, he says, and helps organizations to adapt, which creates upside opportunities.

Good governance transforms performance because it protects against downside risks such as reputational risks and integrity risks, and helps organizations to adapt, which creates upside opportunities.

The IMD Global Board Center aims to support long-term organizational success through a strong board and brings together world-class thought leadership and global best practices to help boards reach their full potential.

Cossin and his team work on real-world issues for boards to improve their performance and carry out their strategic role in the company’s success. The Center supports board members by providing unique and pertinent resources and tools to address current boardroom issues such as risk and opportunity optimization, investment selection, and strategy design, and works with boards to help improve board dynamics and effectiveness.

The Center also offers a combination of open enrollment and custom programs aimed at empowering board members and enhancing board performance, and Cossin is Director of its High Performance Boards program, Board Practice Series (BPS), and Board Director Diploma.

Cossin defines governance as the art of decision making at the top of organizations and says better-governed companies outperform their peers because they are better protected against downside risks and more agile and able to profit from upside opportunities.

He favors an adaptive and interactive approach to find distinctive solutions for organizations based on the social, geopolitical, technological, and economic transformations in different regions of the world. Corporate boards, he says, also need to factor in geopolitical risks, social evolution, and the long-term instability of the world, which is something they often do not give sufficient thought to.

His clinical work has enabled him to identify a number of essential elements for successful governance, which he calls the Four Pillars of Board Effectiveness. These are:

  • People quality, diversity, focus, and dedication
  • Information architecture – internal and external, formal and informal
  • Structures and processes
  • Group dynamics and board culture

 

Cossin has worked as an advisor and executive teacher to supranational organizations (United Nations, European Central Bank, World Bank, IFC, International Olympic Committee) and sovereign wealth funds and state investors (PIF in Saudi Arabia, ADQ in Abu Dhabi, Temasek in Singapore), as well as ministries, central banks, wealthy families, and the boards or executive committees of corporations, financial institutions, and funds in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. He also advises non-profit organizations such as the Red Cross and IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) on governance. He is currently Senior Advisor in Governance to UNICEF and to the International Organization for Standardization.

He is the author of two books on governance (Inspiring Stewardship and High Performance Boards) and has published articles in leading journals such as Management Science, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Computational Finance, and MIT Sloan Management Review. He is also a columnist for CEOWORLD magazine.

Cossin is President of the Stewardship Institute, whose goal is to support projects with positive social impact through ESG research and advocacy, and Chairman of BERG Capital Management, which manages investment processes for large asset owners using governance principles. He is also a member of the American Finance Association, the Eastern Finance Association, and the European Finance Association.

Before joining IMD, he was Professor of Finance at HEC Lausanne. He previously taught at Harvard University, where he obtained two Derek Bok Awards for excellence in teaching and was a visiting professor at the University of California and INSEAD.

Selected publications
High performance boards : Improving and energizing your governance
Book
High performance boards : Improving and energizing your governance
BoardCorporate Governance
A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation. When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, wh...
13 May 2020
Inspiring stewardship
Book
Inspiring stewardship
LeadershipEthicsOrganizational Behavior
Inspiring Stewardship helps leaders drive sustainable development and growth by balancing short- and long-term objectives amidst competing interests. By examining a range of exceptional individual ...
31 May 2016
Article
How to reconcile your shareholders with other stakeholders
Corporate GovernanceStrategySustainability
Identify which stakeholders will create long-term value for shareholders — and avoid the value-destroying traps associated with others. In this article, we look at the five traps and describe how l...
13 July 2020
Article
Credit risk in a network economy
FinanceLeadership
The authors develop a structural model of credit risk in a network economy, where any firm can lend to any other firm, so that each firm is subject to counterparty risk either from direct borrowers...
1 October 2007
Academic publications
Article
Wrongdoing in publicly listed family- and nonfamily-owned firms: A behavioral perspective
Family BusinessEthics
We integrate research on family-owned firms (FOFs) and the Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTOF) to study wrongdoing—a specific dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR) associated with des...
13 January 2023
Case Study
Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Accommodating ATMs
Finance
When Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) installed intelligent deposit machines (IDMs) it did so to make banking more convenient and save time for customers. Cash deposited was counted automatical...
12 April 2022
Case Study
Credit Suisse: Lackadaisical about risk
Finance
When Archegos, a low-profile family office, lost money on its holding of ViacomCBS shares in March 2021, it faced margin calls it could not meet, forcing it to unwind its positions. Banks with $50 ...
12 April 2022
Case Study
Barclays: Culture is more than just a word
Finance
During the financial crisis of 2007-2008, Barclays manipulated LIBOR down by submitting artificially low rates to make itself look less risky. Traders also manipulated the rate for personal gain. T...
11 April 2022
Case Study
Wells Fargo: When eight wasn't great
Finance
When former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf pushed his employees to sell eight Wells Fargo products per customer through cross-selling – he no doubt assumed it would be done with customers’ consent. In...
11 April 2022
High performance boards : Improving and energizing your governance
Book
High performance boards : Improving and energizing your governance
BoardCorporate Governance
A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation. When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, wh...
13 May 2020
Case Study
The Delta-Emirates audit committee depreciation game
FinanceCorporate Governance
A friend, who is a board member of Emirates Group (Emirates), tells you about a heated exchange in her board room about Emirates planes depreciation. Your friend asks you for your advice as you hav...
29 November 2019
Case Study
Downfall Deutsche Bank
FinanceCorporate GovernanceBoard
The case looks at the leadership, governance, board, strategy and other issues that led up to the downfall of Deutsche Bank. It discusses the ideological shift from stakeholder value harmonization ...
16 October 2017
Inspiring stewardship
Book
Inspiring stewardship
LeadershipEthicsOrganizational Behavior
Inspiring Stewardship helps leaders drive sustainable development and growth by balancing short- and long-term objectives amidst competing interests. By examining a range of exceptional individual ...
31 May 2016
Article
A theoretical argument why the t-copula explains credit risk contagion better than the Gaussian copula
Finance
One of the key questions in credit dependence modelling is the specfication of the copula function linking the marginals of default variables. Copulae functions are important because they allow to ...
1 January 2010
Article
Financial engineering's fallout
FinanceEconomics
It's time to bring morality back into finance and time for business leaders to take risk seriously, writes this expert. Finance is not an abstract mathematical theory.
14 January 2009
Case Study
Deal making in troubled waters: The ABN AMRO takeover
Finance
In a letter to ABN AMRO in February 2007, TCI, a British hedge fund with a small stake in ABN AMRO, stated: “We believe that it would be in the interests of all shareholders, other stakeholders and...
14 June 2008
Article
Credit risk in a network economy
FinanceLeadership
The authors develop a structural model of credit risk in a network economy, where any firm can lend to any other firm, so that each firm is subject to counterparty risk either from direct borrowers...
1 October 2007
Case Study
Preparing for the Google IPO: A revolution in the making?
Finance
In April 2004, Google announced that it was launching its long awaited IPO. The case looks at the unconventional auction format of the IPO of the world's most popular search engine, the role of inv...
23 August 2004
Book Chapter
Credit risk: The new frontier of risk management
Finance
The art of market risk measurement and control has reached a state today that is impressive by any standard. Recent academic developments (notably based on option pricing), new tools (VaR and its v...
1 January 2001
Article
Swap credit risk: An empirical investigation on transaction data
Finance
Currency and interest rate swaps are subject to a complex, two-sided default risk. Although several theoretical papers have recently addressed the problem of pricing swap credit risk, the empirical...
1 October 1997
Insight for Executives
Article
Les nouveaux défis du capitalisme
EconomicsFinance
The year 2022 was not an easy one for BASF, the global chemical giant. The year had barely begun when two pillars of its business model collapsed: the war in Ukraine led the company to take a 6.3 b...
2 May 2023
Article
Anticiper la catastrophe, un devoir pour les investisseurs
Finance
Thinking the impossible is no more within the reach of market professionals than it is for ordinary people. The Covid-19 pandemic, a century after the global tragedy of the Spanish flu, showed this...
27 January 2023
Article
L'ESG doit s'adapter au retour des conflits armés
EconomicsSustainability
The return of war to Europe has claimed a prominent victim in the investment world: ESG, the environmental, social and governance perspective that many professionals assign to their work. Not that ...
12 October 2022
How to survive and thrive in a geopolitical storm
Article
How to survive and thrive in a geopolitical storm
BoardPoliticsStrategy
The business world has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But chaos can bring opportunity if your board of directors is prepared for action, write Didier Cossin and Abrah...
26 July 2022
Article
Inflation, un risque mal anticipé par les investisseurs
EconomicsInvestment
Fighting deflationary risks and keeping rates low has been the dominant paradigm for so long that very few investors had a plan B when central bankers announced the gradual end of monetary laxity. ...
30 June 2022
Director diversity: What next for the boardroom?
Article
Director diversity: What next for the boardroom?
BoardDiversity and Equity and InclusionSustainability
There are more women on boards than ever – but is that really the end point of our diversity push? To really gain from diversity, the boards of the future will need to expand the way they define it...
31 May 2022
Why ESG should really read GES
Article
Why ESG should really read GES
SustainabilityCorporate Governance
The governance aspect of ESG is a fundamental driver of environmental and social quality. Our experts outline the methodology required to ensure board-level leadership in sustainability.
17 March 2022
Article
Pour une gouvernance des investissements publics
InvestmentPolitics
The governance of public investment remains too neglected in France, deplore two experts in a forum at “Echoes”. The work of the Gare du Nord and the results of the Institut de France are two emble...
16 November 2021
The CEO’s post-pandemic survival guide: ESG targets take center stage
Article
The CEO’s post-pandemic survival guide: ESG targets take center stage
BoardLeadershipStrategySustainabilityDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
CEO turnover is rising after a COVID lull as boards place corporate culture and social responsibility at the heart of performance criteria, equal to shareholder value creation.
9 November 2021
Questions that will help you identify potential conflicts of interest on your board: Part 4
Article
Questions that will help you identify potential conflicts of interest on your board: Part 4
BoardEthics
The position of your company in society is something that needs to be taken into account when you consider how to maximize shareholder value.Board directors have a moral obligation not to take adva...
10 September 2021
Article
L'agilité, atout maître des gouvernants dans leur combat climatique
InvestmentAgilitySustainability
We are witnessing a radical change in investors' expectations regarding climate risk, write Didier Cossin and Philippe Mudry. The sacrosanct performance objective could well in the long term be rep...
25 August 2021
Beyond Bezos: Amazon’s prime movers face a tricky transition
Article
Beyond Bezos: Amazon’s prime movers face a tricky transition
Corporate Governance
Jeff Bezos will find the move from CEO to Chairman of the Board far from easy. Didier Cossin and Michael Watkins offer advice on avoiding the pitfalls. As Jeff Bezos is soon to learn, the qualities...
17 June 2021
Article
Le comité d'investissement, un outil négligé par les grands groupes
BoardMergers and AcquisitionsInvestment
Mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly structuring events for companies. Given the risk they entail and the difficulty of such transactions, it is surprising that the boards of directors...
2 June 2021
Board Oversight of Geopolitical Risks and Opportunities
Article
Board Oversight of Geopolitical Risks and Opportunities
Board Corporate Governance
Geopolitics is “the study of the effects of Earth’s geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations.” Geopolitical risk refers to situations involving power struggles such a...
31 May 2021
Board Oversight of Cyber Risks and Cybersecurity
Article
Board Oversight of Cyber Risks and Cybersecurity
Board Corporate Governance Ethics Stakeholder Management
Conflicts of interest abound at the board level. They constitute a significant issue in that they affect ethics by distorting decision making and generating consequences that can undermine the cred...
1 May 2021
Article
Retraites : pourquoi la gestion des réserves doit être repensée
FinanceInvestment
At a time when pension reform could be relaunched, it is important that neglected debates finally find their conclusion, including that of the governance of the system and its corollary, the optima...
10 March 2021
Article
Quelle gouvernance pour «Le Temps»?
Governance is the essential success factor for organizations. This is also true for the media. The incredible social, technological and geopolitical transformation that we are experiencing is shaki...
8 December 2020
Article
Calling all board members : Ignoring social media could cost billions
BoardSocial Media
Social media. Boards spend far too little time thinking about it—and many directors shy away from it—opting for more formal and structured sources of news and information. Yet social media has fund...
5 August 2020
Article
Inside the boardroom: 9 mental biases that mask risk
BoardCorporate Governance
Boards are at the heart of risk governance. By their nature, risks cannot be fully and exactly measured. The real question proficient directors should ask, therefore, concerns the board’s attitude ...
22 July 2020
Article
How to reconcile your shareholders with other stakeholders
Corporate GovernanceStrategySustainability
Identify which stakeholders will create long-term value for shareholders — and avoid the value-destroying traps associated with others. In this article, we look at the five traps and describe how l...
13 July 2020
Improving and Energizing your Governance