We get what we plan for and mange, is that a best practice?
Bringing digital and data skills to the board will probably require a change of process and thought.
The process change requires breaking the conformational bias of finding, even with a diversity agenda, individuals who fit a certain profile from education, sectorial experience, executive roles, functional skills, provable previous roles.
If the remit was to place and bring in more finance skills we have pools of individuals to pick from, not just the big accounting firms. If the skills required were marketing, operating or technology; the pool is wide and deep. However, we have tended to focus on de-risking using a profile and experience.
Digital and data is very young and is changing rapidly. Those coming from BigTech in senior positions are not leaders in digital today, there were 5 years ago.
To find, attract digital skills at all levels there is a need to both train and discover continually, pretending to de-risk by provable experience is not de-risking it is asking for skills that are not current.