What was the catalyst for launching CGI?
David, my business partner in the Corporate Governance Institute, has deep expertise in corporate governance and was looking for ways to bring his knowledge to a wider audience. Before launching the Corporate Governance Institute (CGI), I spent 30 years grounded in the EdTech sector, helping learning providers scale their offerings to a global market.
David and I saw an opportunity when we discovered the need for more certification for directors. It turns out that less than half of one percent (<0.5%!) of company directors are qualified for their job in the boardroom.
At the same time, a wave of poor corporate governance decision-making was bringing the role of the modern director into clear focus (and the front of the newspapers).
Unfortunately, many businesses fail to ensure their directors are qualified for the role. Having the appropriate qualifications is a prerequisite for most positions, but for some reason, we’ve stopped short of making sure the most senior people in a company are actually qualified for the role.
Boardrooms around the globe are filled with pale, stale and often frail males, often placed there simply because they were old (and deemed knowledgeable).
I saw an opportunity to enhance how organisations understand and implement good governance. At scale, the best way of doing this is through a high-quality, robust, professional and consistent education and certification programme. We are democratising what it means to be a modern boardroom director.
Good governance and ESG practices can vastly enhance an organisation’s standing in the community and amongst its shareholders – that’s the message we want to hit home with our target audience.
Tell me about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?
The Corporate Governance Institute is a certification and membership body that educates existing and aspiring directors. Ultimately, we aspire to become the global leader in education at the board and executive level.
We were founded in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. This forced us to do everything online, and we’ve continued with this digital-first approach as we have grown the business. Our primary focus is on customers who want to learn online; consequently, we have created a world-class interactive, customer-first online learning platform.
Our customers are all around the globe, hailing from over 50 countries worldwide. It’s not just the geographical diversity of our clients that we pride ourselves on; we’ve also worked with some of the world’s leading brands, including Google, Coke, Adidas, NHS, Deloitte.
How has the business evolved since its launch? When was this?
My business partner, David Duffy, and I met online in March 2020. We spent time researching the sector, understanding the competitive landscape and putting the structures required to deliver world-class education into place.
We started by exploring opportunities for collaboration with all the key partners that would underpin the value of our credentials. We spoke to universities for certification, corporate governance practitioners to validate our thinking, and the best professors and teachers in corporate governance to deliver our courses.
We started by delivering our courses on Zoom, but as I mentioned, we’re a digital-first company and now deliver all our courses 100% online. Through our digital tools, our learners can choose when and where they want to learn alongside connecting with their classmates, peers, and teachers.
We are now a team of over 30 professionals dedicated to creating, delivering, and supporting world-class education programs for senior leaders.
Tell us about the working culture at CGI
Since founding the business, we have been focused on developing the best culture for the type of company we want. As Peter Drucker famously said: “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. We completely buy into this idea, and our culture is what binds the team together.
Like many founders of digital-first companies, we had our concerns about building a strong and positive company culture; but we’re a tight bunch who all love what we do, which makes things a lot easier.
Besides, we need to ensure we have a great culture… that’s good governance, after all!