2026 Germany Spencer Stuart Board Indexes

Germany’s corporate governance model has traditionally valued experience, continuity and deep industry expertise. But the qualities that provided resilience in the past may not be sufficient for what comes next. DAX and MDAX companies are facing a convergence of geopolitical disruption, AI, cyber risk, energy uncertainty and shifting global supply chains. In this environment, boards cannot afford to renew themselves at the pace of traditional succession cycles. The imperative is to build tomorrow’s capabilities before today’s strengths become tomorrow’s constraints.

“When making new appointments, the focus should not be on who needs to be replaced, but on what the company will need in the future. Effective succession planning should therefore be guided by the company’s strategy and the challenges of the years ahead, because a supervisory board must not only understand today’s business model, but also recognize the developments that could threaten it tomorrow,” says Lars Gollenia, Leader of the Board and CEO Practice in Germany and Austria.

• Experience can become a liability when it anchors the board in the past. Deep industry expertise remains critical, but boards dominated by similar experiences and assumptions risk being better equipped for the world they know than for the one that is emerging.
• Succession planning should be driven by future capabilities, not past profiles. Too often, the starting point is the profile of the departing director. Instead, boards should look ahead to the strategic challenges of the next five to ten years and use every appointment as an opportunity to close a critical capability gap.
• AI and technology can no longer sit outside the board’s core agenda. If AI, cybersecurity and digital disruption can fundamentally reshape a company’s economics and competitive position, boards need the expertise to understand the implications themselves. These are no longer specialist topics. They are central to strategy, oversight and long-term value creation.
• Resilience requires preparedness, not just risk controls. Traditional governance is designed to identify and mitigate known risks. In today’s environment, that is no longer enough. Boards need to challenge assumptions, stress-test scenarios and ensure management has the strategic flexibility to act before disruption becomes a crisis.