How do companies manage digital transformation in an era when technology is rapidly transforming how we work, with systems and processes evolving year after year? Often, it comes down to ensuring organisations get the right advice from their boards and executive leaders.
Joanne Moss, an experienced board director of ASX-listed tech companies and partner at national law firm Gadens, is one of Australia’s foremost business and legal leaders in digital innovation and transformation.
She’s at the cutting edge of board strategy and complex disputes, and is a thought leader around digital transformation and innovation. She’s spent years advising companies on how to navigate their digital strategy, utilising both her legal and commercial business knowledge.
Speaking to Women’s Agenda recently, Moss explained that throughout the time she’s spent as a board director, a deep understanding of the commercial drivers and pressure points of fast-track disruptive tech companies has meant she is able to offer holistic guidance to businesses.
“Many early-stage companies look to roll out a digital process to one team first such as the IT or finance department,” Moss said. “It’s a siloed approach. They try to bolt it onto other teams at a later stage.”
“What is lacking is the overarching consideration. A holistic approach makes governance and operational execution of the digital strategy simpler and more streamlined.
“While different teams may be more advanced in the adoption of certain technology and digital processes, the company as a whole should have a true north on the digital strategy.”
Digital strategy from the boardroom
When it comes to her corporate leadership, Moss has frequently found herself forging a path in a traditionally male-dominated space. She gained her first commercial, paid non-executive director role at the age of 39 at a public, unlisted biotech company. At the time, she was the youngest non-executive director on the board by about 20 years, and was the only woman in the room.
Until recently, she served as an independent chairperson of an ASX-listed company board, where she facilitated resolutions around how the company could develop and commercialise ground-breaking platforms for workflow automation using artificially intelligent imaging in the life sciences industry, as well as the commercialisation of the FDA approved product in Europe and the US.
According to Moss, the constantly evolving technology of artificial intelligence, workflow automation, cloud computing, data use and cybersecurity are some of the main areas that companies are currently navigating. It’s imperative companies are putting in place the appropriate legal guardrails for emerging tech use.
Moss says her experience across legal, risk, compliance and governance areas also means she is able to advise companies on how to navigate the commercial side of digital strategy. Her advice extends to the roll out of digital products and services, especially at emerging disruptive tech companies.
She’s currently doing so in her role as a non-executive director of the ASX-listed broadcasting company BirdDog Technology, where she also chairs the company’s Audit and Risk Committee, and is a member of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.
Recently, Moss contributed as an expert panellist on the Governance Institute of Australia’s Data Governance Report, which found that almost 60 per cent of participants thought their boards did not have enough understanding of the organisation’s current data governance challenges. Further, more than half of organisations said they did not have a data governance framework, commonly due to capacity and resourcing constraints.
The report was launched at the ASIC Annual Forum in Melbourne, and as Moss explains, it offers timely and important guidance for companies amid rising cyber incidents and data breaches, increasing regulations on data and personal information, and the imminent reforms to the Privacy Act.
A lawyer’s perspective
Alongside her work as a board director, Moss is a partner at national law firm Gadens.
She is a litigation partner with an interest in helping commercial clients that are involved in regulatory investigations or litigation regarding mishandling of data and personal information, cyber incidents and data breaches.
Often, Moss spends her time advising Australian companies on the trend towards emerging tech litigation in the United States, particularly in the area of AI, and the potential for that to unfold in Australia.
“AI is top of mind for clients and we are having different conversations with different clients depending on where they are at in their innovation and digital disruption journey,” Moss shared with Women’s Agenda.
“Some clients are coming from a low base where they are enquiring about what AI is and how it can assist their organisation. Other clients are more advanced and actively seeking a proof of concept or undertaking pilots – whether open source such as ChatGPT or closed source.
“The Gadens Intellectual Property and Technology team are providing a lot of advice around clients putting appropriate guard rails in place from a governance perspective on how to use AI within their organisation.”
Moss is also focused on supporting the potential of Australia’s future lawyers in her capacity as a board member of the University of Technology Law Advisory Board and as a member of the university’s Educating for the Future Committee.
“It is pleasing to see the UTS Law Faculty take a holistic and methodical approach to digital disruption by way of a digital strategy which will be weaved throughout the curriculum for its students,” Moss says.
“This will guide the students in their understanding of how technology will change how they practice law in the future, embrace the challenges posed by technology and encourage its ethical use.”
You can access the Data Governance Report from the Governance Institute of Australia here, and find the link to the Governance and Risk Management Forum 2024 here.