A new board briefing paper from the world's largest group of women corporate directors captures some of the ways companies are having to pivot to meet technology, workforce, and consumer disruption. WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation just released "What Directors Need to Know About New Marketplaces and Business Models," revealing how boards are capitalizing on global shifts to meet markets where they are today.

"When a tech giant like Google enters the home-delivery business, boards recognize that their agility and ability to innovate are critical to their company's very survival," says Susan Stautberg, chairman and CEO of WCD. WCD Quebec Chapter Chair Estelle Metayer – director of France's Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Canada's BRP Inc. – describes the current challenge as the "complexity matrix": the web of new technologies, new customer needs, new regulations, and new business channels that boards must tackle to stay competitive.

The WCD board briefing – highlighting key insights from a panel Metayer moderated at this year's WCD Global Institute held in New York – focuses on these four topics:

• Pivoting Required: Adjusting Business Models and Throwing Out Old Assumptions

• Global Talent Grab: What the New Workforce Demands

• New Markets: Taking a Measured Approach

• Redefining Collaboration: Leveraging Internal and External Relationships

"The very definitions of what a competitor is and what a collaborator is are changing every day," says Nancy Calderon, a director of WCD and partner with KPMG LLP, which sponsored the briefing. "As directors, we have to be more open to how these definitions drive business models and where and how we can meet market demand and talent demand."

Calderon was also part of the WCD panel forming the basis of the briefing; other directors included Yoko Ishikura (Nissin Foods Holdings, Lifenet Insurance Co., Sojitz Corporation); former U.S. Congresswoman Lynn Schenk (Sempra Energy, Biogen, California High Speed Rail Authority); and Alison Winter (Nordstrom, Inc., Blain's Farm and Fleet).