NACD Directors Summit 2026: Eric Ries on the mainstage

“Best practices are the bane of an independent directors existence when they don’t represent all the stakeholders, and conflict with the founders mission, but there are solutions!”

“Loved your talk at the #nacdsummit and yes you can taste it!”

“The first wake up call by Eric Ries came early, and the NACD northern CA group chat group lit up. Corporate directors are buzzing, asking “what are alternative corporate structures? and “how can we actually govern companies differently?””

“No palco principal, Eric Ries foi bastante provocador: os conselheiros realmente agregam valor? Que perfil de conselheiro os presidentes e suas equipes de liderança mais apreciam? Perguntas que merecem reflexão.”

“Eric Ries so eloquently and powerfully elevated the leadership of Sol Price, the 'father of warehouse retailing' and his unrelenting leadership in morals and values to the customer even when slight moves could have dramatically increased short-term profitability.”

“Eric Ries spoke about his new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great. It was a full-circle moment for me. When I was a professor at Texas A&M, we taught his Lean Startup method to our Executive MBA students. Hearing him now turn to how “good” corporate governance can have unintended “bad” consequences.”

“He had fascinating stories that he covers in his new book (can't wait to read!) about companies that are considered exceptions to the rule but continuously outperform. Novo Nordisk, IKEA, Rolex, Costco and Patagonia. His message was that when the exceptions keep outperforming, maybe the rule is broken.”

“This year, mine came from Eric Ries, who opened with a question you don’t often hear at a governance conference: “Why are boards terrible?” His argument, from his new book Incorruptible: boards that break from “best practices” often outperform, because they stay anchored to mission and values and think in decades, not quarters.”

“- The question every board should ask: “Who would we rather die than betray?””

“Bought a new book called "Incorruptable," by keynoter Eric Ries, who (interestingly) touched on many of the stories and concepts I taught in my recent Iowa State University - Ivy College of Business MBA Ethics Class. A must-read!”

“Eric’s keynote made a compelling case that corporate governance has to change so companies can serve the public good again. Later that same day, I spoke about how we decide on new technologies, and why those choices will shape governance for decades.”

“We usually treat integrity as an ethics question. Eric reframes it as an architecture question. If your governance is designed only to maximize short-term value, financial gravity will eventually pull your mission down, whatever your values statement says.”

“I loved it so much that as soon as I finished it I reached out to a contact at NACD to urge them to consider inviting Eric to speak from the main stage, and apparently others did, as well!”

“My favorite mainstage talk was by Eric Ries on his new book, "Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great", and how foundation-owned and mission-locked companies stay true to their purpose over the long term. It was a powerful case for governance built to last.”

“The next day, David and I sat together listening to Eric Ries share his thesis around purpose-driven companies outperforming "shareholder-first" public firms.  We kept looking at each other, nodding and whispering, “He’s talking about us!””