Send us Fan Mail Dr. Nisha Kohli is the Founder and CEO of Corpstage, a chartered accountant, and a corporate governance specialist with a PhD focused on the relationship between governance and company valuation. For more than two decades, she has worked across finance, governance, sustainability, risk, and technology, helping organizations move beyond policies and disclosures towards systems that influence how the business is actually managed. This conversation matters because ESG often gets stuck between two extremes: it is either treated like a reporting task or dismissed as an added cost. Nisha and Maxim take a more practical view—governance, environmental performance, and stakeholder responsibility as everyday business practices that improve resilience, support better decisions, strengthen access to capital, and create real business value. 5 Key Topics Covered Governance and enterprise value — Nisha explains the governance factors she studied, from Board composition and conduct to ownership structure and shareholder rights, and why value creation showed the strongest relationship with valuation. Why ESG became a cost center — The discussion explores how fragmented standards, consultant-heavy reporting exercises, and weak integration with business strategy caused many companies to spend heavily without improving performance. Evidence-first data and internal controls — Nisha outlines why ESG information needs the same discipline as financial information, including clear ownership, reliable evidence, audit trails, internal controls, and human oversight of AI-enabled systems. Materiality, focus, and business strategy — Rather than measuring everything, companies should identify the environmental, social, and governance issues that materially affect growth, profitability, risk, employees, customers, suppliers, and access to markets. A practical path for mid-market companies — For companies without large sustainability teams, the starting point can be one internal champion, a cross-functional working group, and the gradual integration of sustainability into planning, KPIs, operations, and capital allocation. 3 Key Insights ESG only creates value when it changes operating decisions. An ESG does not create much value on its own: the real impact comes when governance, sustainability, and stakeholder risks guide priorities, budgets, and everyday work. Materiality should reduce complexity, not add to it. Companies do not need to chase every framework or metric—they need to focus on the issues that can materially affect revenue, cost, resilience, reputation, financing, and long-term value. Small companies do not need to imitate bigger companies. A mid-market business can start with clear ownership, simple processes, reliable data, and practical actions before investing in a team. Links Corpstage: https://www.corpstage.com/ Dr. Nisha Kohli on LinkedIn: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/nishakohli Future Ventures Corp: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/future-ventures-corp Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgPPHfPBZz-r5NQLq_dWfA/This episode was brought to you by the Capital Intelligence Platform: https://capital.futureventures.ca/ About the Guest Dr. Nisha Kohli is the Founder and CEO of Corpstage. She is a chartered accountant with a PhD in corporate governance and more than 20 years of experience in research, consulting, training, and business advisory. She helps organizations make sustainability and governance practical, useful, and focused on long-term value, resilience, and responsible growth.