What do the best companies do when they’re facing such an overwhelming crisis as Russia suddenly invading Ukraine, and they have operations affecting either or both countries? Here are a few lessons from a conversation among corporate board secretaries on the role of corporate governance in managing a crisis of this unprecedented magnitude.

Insights for What’s Ahead

• Live your company’s purpose, embracing it as your compass during the turbulent times, congruently and consistently;
• Ensure you act upon your purpose, with accountability to all stakeholders, internal and external, and;
• Communicate transparently and with appropriate disclosure to the respective audiences.

In our conversation with the panelists, maybe somewhat surprisingly, purpose jumped to the fore. Let’s step back and explore a bit more deeply the notion—and the power—of purpose. Simon Sinek popularized the concept in his bestseller Start With Why. Why are you in business? What do you stand for? What are you about?

Purpose represents your company’s meaning and serves as your compass into the future; it is a front-burner issue in today’s business world. Companies from Booking.com to Google are updating and sharpening their purpose as a compass by which to live their values and to guide all they do, day in, day out.

Clarity of purpose is where it starts, but putting it into practice is another story (and challenge). Authentic companies ensure purpose leads to corporate actions rather than corporate intentions. Truly living your purpose in crisis management and decision-making (as well as for identifying new opportunities) requires action, accountability, and transparency.

As a unifying force, purpose should inspire workers, customers, investors, and all other stakeholders. Your company’s purpose is, therefore, most powerful when you articulate it congruently, internally and externally.

Living your company’s purpose

Purpose has also proven to be powerful in crisis management. An international pharma company still supplying patients in both the Ukraine and Russia adhered to its purpose to “serve the people through life-saving medicine.” The company’s stance flowed directly from its values. It immediately established a crisis team led by executive leadership with single-minded focus on finding ways to continue providing supplies, despite supply chain challenges and difficult access to the markets. The board was kept regularly informed. Purpose and values indeed served as unifying forces that made for relatively straightforward decision-making.

A large international energy company had very different considerations in the crisis. But the company was ready, having anticipated multiple scenarios that might play out due to the regional instability—scenarios that would affect the company at the broader, global strategic level. Hence, here the board took the lead role. Inspired by its corporate purpose, the board immersed itself in a 72-hour strategy session with executive leadership from which a set of critical decisions and focused actions emerged—these needed to be executed very quickly.

Acting upon your purpose with accountability to your stakeholders

All companies in the panel clearly expressed their commitment to accountability, starting with their people. Companies with employees in either or both Ukraine and Russia have taken rapid action to assist them. A leading spirits company’s board secretary said: “Employees treated as part of the family, and we’re operating accordingly.” As part of the accountability process, boards have asked managements for revised risk assessments of how various actions will affect not only investors but the broader range of stakeholders as well. Interruptions in the regional and global supply chain may well continue to militate in favor of revising company strategy. And reputational risk will be a key factor in determining whether companies will continue to participate in Russian markets. These decisions, in turn, should be seamlessly informed by the company’s purpose as described above.

Communicating your purpose-driven decisions transparently

Last, but certainly not least, is the need for transparency and appropriate disclosure. Major decisions precipitated by the crisis had to be made quickly and then communicated almost instantly to multiple internal and external parties across multiple channels and platforms—in a congruent, consistent manner. While most companies have their own internal channels of communication to employees, a broader challenge presented itself to disclose to regulators, investors, customers, and other stakeholders at the same time. Getting communications to be transparent and reflective of the company’s position—in this rapidly changing and sensitive environment with so many different stakeholders and regulatory requirements—is a corporate governance challenge worth the effort to get right.