Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein cover image

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Jonathan Goodman (Deloitte): Governing Strategy

Feb 10, 2025
59:01

(0:00) Intro

(1:35) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(2:21) Start of interview

(3:00) Jonathan's origin story

(5:10) His start in journalism

(7:05) Founding Monitor Canada with Roger Martin (1987)

(9:43) Transitioning to Deloitte Monitor (2013) 

(12:18) About Deloitte Canada’s Podium Club for Directors that he leads.

(13:38) How Trump's tariffs may impact Canada (note: this podcast was recorded on 1/24, before tariffs went into place)

(17:57) What is strategy? "I think of strategy as choice"

(20:20) The role of the board in strategy. "The best CEOs seek advice from their boards, not a grade"

(25:39) The questions board members ask matter. "The question is the asset" "Ask questions and question the answers" 

(30:40) Rethinking Board Information Approaches *Reference to Netflix board case study

(33:30) Embracing Uncertainty and Risk

(37:55) Private vs. Public Strategy Dynamics

(42:10) The Role of Culture and Talent in Strategy (scope of company founders)

(46:55) Key Strategic Priorities for Directors (beyond idiosyncrasies of each company): 1) Geopolitics; 2) Technological Shifts (AI, Cyber, etc); and 3) Talent (Workforce and People).

(53:10) Books that have greatly influenced his life:

  1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
  2. The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (1976)
  3. On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers (1961)

(55:58) His mentors.

(56:41) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives his life by. 

Jonathan Goodman is a vice Chair and member of the board of Deloitte Canada, where he leads the firm’s CEO and Boardroom programs, including Deloitte Canada’s Podium Club for Directors.  He is also Global Chair and former global Managing Partner of Monitor Deloitte.

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

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