IAG Chairman Elizabeth Bryan has highlighted the importance of boards considering wider social issues as part of their responsibilities.

Ms Bryan says companies must embrace community expectations, including around transparency, consumer wellbeing and action on climate change, and they must also be across technological advances.

“If a company gets either of those wrong, they are out of business,” she told the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers conference in Sydney last week.

The value of intangible assets is built through not only delivering a high-operating company, but also through reputation and the role it plays in society, she said in comments reported in the media.

Ms Bryan, who is also Chairman of Virgin Australia, told the conference the Hayne royal commission hearings have shown the need for companies to look beyond short-term earnings growth and focus on long-term profits.

She also highlighted the role of mitigation spending, which delivers higher returns than money spent on remediation and helps reduce the cost of insurance.