Directors’ Perspectives of the Big Picture

Following the survey, face-to-face interviews were held with 19 of the respondents to explore in greater detail the outcomes from the survey results. Interviewees uniformly agreed with the results from the survey, especially on reasons for the directors’ insufficient knowledge, positive attitude, risk neutrality and strong intention. The only mismatch was that the interviewees believed and assessed that the real level of directors’ understanding might be even lower than the 2.5 on a five-point Likert scale that emerged from the survey. Three additional topics emerging from the interviews were business culture, the government role and the market for financial derivatives. The additional issues of the business culture having no satisfactory targets, implied but not documented thoughts of owners, low attention to preserving wealth, focus on making money, and distrust of employees have all hindered directors and owners from establishing a clear corporate risk management policy and framework. As identified by directors, and in the information about suppliers and users, the government’s major role is most evident in subsections of the three most popular types of financial derivatives, specific market developments and especially corporate scandals. The directors interviewed concluded with a call for the government to set up a legal framework for financial derivatives, to develop the underlying markets and to take part in disseminating knowledge and training, especially for directors.