Multinational executives and board directors must be "politically savvy" to meet the challenges created by Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.
Clarke Murphy, chief executive of executive recruitment firm Russell Reynolds Associates, said pressure to "stay local" from governments in Britain, the United States and France had made it even more difficult for public companies to deliver for global shareholders.
"When we're working for global boards, they're saying: 'Listen, we need people who can navigate this'.
"It used to be the CEO had a government relations arm sitting in Washington or Brussels. Now they're saying: 'Our chief executive's got to deal with some of these issues personally' and have the political savviness to deal with that successfully."
The threat was made real when Ford Motor announced in January that it would scrap its planned $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and invest locally after it came under harsh criticism from Mr Trump for "offshoring" jobs.
Mr Murphy predicted companies would appoint chief operating officers to help manage the company as the CEO became more preoccupied with political dynamics.
The political pressure on multinationals come as boards have been forced to adjust to the disruption brought about by digital technologies and volatile economies.
Mr Murphy said the end of the mining boom exposed executives who couldn't handle the volatile times: "At $US100 a barrel you can be pretty practical, but at $US40 a barrel you damn well better be disruptive or you won't survive."
Likewise, boards were looking for directors to understand digital disruption.
Mr Murphy said over the past few years the firm had conducted about 200 searches for "digital directors". Those searches were not for "29-year-old kids from Amazon" but people from companies that had undergone big digital transformations across the whole company, not just in their revenue.
"Due to the pace of the transformation, so many boards are saying just hiring consultants to give us this advice isn't good enough. We need someone within the governing body, the board of directors, who understands the pace of disruption."
Australian boards may be well primed for such disruption.
Russell Reynolds' latest global survey of 369 public company directors found Australia ranked first in board culture and chair effectiveness, ahead of the United States.
However, the country also ranked third in overall board effectiveness and ascribed 61 per cent less value than the global average to actively cultivating a relationship with the CEO.
Mr Murphy said Australian boards were pressing harder than some other board cultures because they were happy to be rigorous and independence.
The focus on independence "probably leads to a healthy tension with management, which therefore has a different approach to the level of communication".
In a world of disruption that tension wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
