Boards Struggle With Today’s Complex Risk Landscape

Directors must adapt as modern crises far exceed traditional governance challenges, experts warn

Boards today face an unprecedented array of threats, from cyber breaches and AI missteps to geopolitical disruptions and rapid social-media-fuelled reputational crises. Many directors still operate with the playbook of the past, focused on financial reporting, classic governance failures, or occasional securities lawsuits—a world that no longer exists.

“The executive and board risk landscape has completely changed over the last couple of years,” said Janik LaChance, chief marketing officer for Quebec at HUB International, during the firm’s 2026 outlook webinar. “It has become vastly more complex.”

In today’s environment, a board chair could wake up to a European data breach, a whistleblower alleging workplace culture failures trending on social media, and a geopolitical flare-up that leaves employees stranded abroad—all within a single week. Traditional governance approaches are ill-equipped to manage such simultaneity.

Expanding Scope of Board-Level Risk

According to LaChance, boards are now navigating far beyond conventional securities litigation. Regulatory scrutiny has intensified across areas such as cybersecurity, data privacy, environmental disclosures, AI governance, workforce culture, and ESG compliance.

“These issues have become the norm, not outliers,” she said. “Geopolitical instability introduces exposures many directors never anticipated, and social media accelerates reputational crises faster than traditional board decision-making can keep up.”

Despite these realities, some boards still treat these matters as operational, rather than strategic, risks. LaChance stressed: “These are strategic risks requiring direct board engagement, not just periodic reports.”

Fluency Audits: Mapping Board Capabilities

LaChance recommends starting with a fluency audit, which assesses whether a board has the expertise to oversee current and emerging risks. Organisations performing well in this space actively strengthen their boards with specialists in cyber, regulatory complexity, and environmental risk—or engage advisors to brief directors in real time.

A fluency audit identifies gaps without criticising incumbents, providing a roadmap for board renewal and targeted advisory support. Crucially, these audits must be repeated periodically to reflect the evolving risk landscape.

Integrated Executive Risk Strategy

The second pillar is insurance. LaChance argues boards should treat policies such as D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, cyber, and kidnap-and-ransom not as standalone instruments but as components of an integrated executive risk framework. Scenario modelling allows boards to anticipate how complex events may trigger coverage across these policies, recalibrating annually for evolving exposures.

Ultimately, strong governance and comprehensive coverage do more than protect individual directors—they empower boards to make confident, strategic decisions under pressure. “When directors truly understand exposures and trust their governance and coverage, they govern more effectively,” LaChance said.