Governance
Our commitment to doing the right thing stems from our 100-Year Plan, a framework that keeps us focused on long-term stability in the market. This plan helps us balance short-term business decisions with our long-term goals. These include creating consistent value for our stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders, and communities) and driving positive, lasting benefits for our society and our planet—for the next century and beyond.
Our Stakeholders
Our Stakeholder Triangle represents NI’s commitment to value creation across all four key stakeholder groups equally—employees, customers, shareholders, and community. Community includes our planet, as none of us can thrive unless our shared home is healthy. Our balanced consideration for stakeholders is a guiding principle that has steered our decision-making since our founding and continues as we strive for long-term growth and stability for the next 100 years.
Although all parts of the triangle are equal, our employees are critical to our success and sit at the heart of our culture, which is a key differentiator for our business. Our employees across the globe connect people, ideas, and technology, and together with our customers we take on humanity’s biggest challenges. This collaboration leads to shared value—both financial and social—for all stakeholders.
We regularly brief our investors on our Corporate Impact strategy and solicit their perspectives to help inform our priorities and enhance our corporate governance practices and disclosures.
Board and Governance
The members of NI’s board of directors serve three-year terms, with elections held annually as directors’ terms expire. Our board chair is independent and separate from our CEO, and 75% of our board is independent. Our board has the following committees: Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, and Nomination and Governance Committee.
Diversity
In considering potential directors, the board and the Nomination and Governance Committee evaluate each candidates’ background, qualifications, attributes, and relevant skills. They also consider diversity in the characteristics of director candidates.
board members are women
of board members are people of color
of executive leadership team members are women
of executive leadership team members are people of color
ESG Governance
The oversight, management, and implementation of our ESG programs and initiatives are structured to ensure these efforts are truly cross-functional and collaborative and are championed by executive leadership.
Ethics and Compliance
Our culture of honesty and integrity is one of our most valuable assets, and maintaining it is one of our most important responsibilities. The NI Code of Ethics outlines the standards we expect every employee, officer, and director to follow. And our global compliance policies outline our standards for ethical business conduct. They align with both NI values and applicable laws. We also train all NI employees annually on our Code of Ethics, and in 2022 topics included conflicts of interest, bribery and other improper payments, workplace harassment, fair competition, accurate books and records, insider trading, protecting company assets, and environmental, health and safety.
We encourage NIers to speak up if they see something that doesn’t seem ethical or right. We provide a confidential hotline where employees can anonymously report violations of the law, our Code of Ethics, or policies without fear of reprisal. NI will investigate these claims and respond appropriately to the findings.
The NI Board of Directors’ Audit Committee monitors our overall compliance with the Code of Ethics. NI’s Corporate Ethics and Compliance Team, with assistance from our Global Ethics and Compliance Working Group, provides employees with advice and counsel and handles policy development and management, compliance reviews and approvals, compliance training, and internal investigations.
Security and Privacy
Trust is the foundation of our relationship with our stakeholders. One way we keep that trust is by protecting our stakeholders’ privacy within all aspects of our operations. Another is by designing our products to the highest security standards, so the data our customers generate through their use is protected.
Information Security
NI is committed to staying ahead of the cybersecurity curve and exceeding our customers’ and collaborators’ increasing expectations for keeping their data safe. Our security team injects security into every step of the lifecycle; prevents, assesses, and responds to cybersecurity threats and incidents; and continually builds awareness of how information security is positioned within NI.
As we expand our reach into industries and markets with growing security and regulatory requirements, we are investing in enterprise infrastructure and product security to support these needs. We’re also aligning to ISO 27001 Information Security Systems and ISO 20001 Service Management Systems, which allow us to support internal and external security demand. We continue to respond to the needs of our hybrid work model, securing data on our employees’ devices and the cloud through stronger access management systems and firewalls.
Data Privacy
Our goal is to exceed customers’ expectations for safeguarding their personal data. We do this by cultivating a culture of Privacy by Design and by Default. That means we consider data privacy in the initial design stage of a project, whether that project entails products, services, or system design, and then integrate privacy into every step of the development process. And all NI employees are required to complete an annual privacy awareness training.
Regardless of their local laws, any NI customer, partner, or employee in any location can use the self-service form within our privacy statement to review and manage the data we collect. In 2022, we enhanced our privacy program by updating the data protection agreement we use with NI vendors and adding a cookie consent form.
Security and Privacy
Trust is the foundation of our relationship with our stakeholders. One way we keep that trust is by protecting our stakeholders’ privacy within all aspects of our operations. Another is by designing our products to the highest security standards, so the data our customers generate through their use is protected.
Information Security
NI is committed to staying ahead of the cybersecurity curve and exceeding our customers’ and collaborators’ increasing expectations for keeping their data safe. Our security team injects security into every step of the lifecycle; prevents, assesses, and responds to cybersecurity threats and incidents; and continually builds awareness of how information security is positioned within NI.
As we expand our reach into industries and markets with growing security and regulatory requirements, we are investing in enterprise infrastructure and product security to support these needs. We’re also aligning to ISO 27001 Information Security Systems and ISO 20001 Service Management Systems, which allow us to support internal and external security demand. We continue to respond to the needs of our hybrid work model, securing data on our employees’ devices and the cloud through stronger access management systems and firewalls.
Data Privacy
Our goal is to exceed customers’ expectations for safeguarding their personal data. We do this by cultivating a culture of Privacy by Design and by Default. That means we consider data privacy in the initial design stage of a project, whether that project entails products, services, or system design, and then integrate privacy into every step of the development process. And all NI employees are required to complete an annual privacy awareness training.
Regardless of their local laws, any NI customer, partner, or employee in any location can use the self-service form within our privacy statement to review and manage the data we collect. In 2022, we enhanced our privacy program by updating the data protection agreement we use with NI vendors and adding a cookie consent form.
