Maybe it's me, maybe it's the times, but a fair number of people approach me every year to ask how they might become a member of a board.
Typically the questions are asked by someone who might want to give something back (usually for a not-for-profit), or they want to experience business issues/opportunities outside their own company, or they see themselves having more free time (typically older execs), and they want to make sure that they're still considered to "be in the game" rather than "out on the beach". All good reasons and, if they're really serious, and if they understand the time and commitments that are required, I'm always happy to spend time over a 7:15 am breakfast in Boston at my usual table.
I'm currently on the boards of 6 (Accounting Management Solutions, Brainshark, Common Angels, Reiser, Rome Snowboards, and Tanya Creations) very exciting companies, and over the years have participated in another 12 or 15. Some of those were my own where I was the CEO, like Datamedix, Mayer Electronics and EarCheck, and others where I was chairman like the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and the Association for Corporate Growth in Boston. Great experiences for me and for the company management (no matter which side of the table I sat on)...even in the uncharted and turbulent times where we significantly shifted strategies or hit a speed bump.
Even though I'm an active and heavily committed board member in the companies where I'm
involved, I still think of myself as a student of boards and am always looking for ways to take the next step forward and improve. So, when I reread this recent McKinsey article, it got me thinking beyond the standard board activities.
- How to take it up a notch?
- How to move beyond the boring Powerpoints about history?
- How to provide management really significant value?
What do I know?
Although I'm still a student of boards, I've been able to codify a couple of "Jack's Rules":
- I'm there to represent the shareholders. Not me, not the CEO, not my investment, but the owners overall. You get away from thinking about the common good and the ultimate value of the business, and it always works against you and ultimately creates tensions on the board. Management has enough to think about without food fights among the directors.
- I only have 3 responsibilities. (1) Work with the board and management on the future strategy of the business including the approval and measurement of the annual business plan. (2) Work on the approval of the senior management comp plans. (3) Connect management with prospects, industry contacts, providers and future board members.
- I don't like too many martinis. One martini is ok. One investor on a board is ok. Two martinis creates imbalance and caution. Two investors should also be a caution flag. Three martinis means you're probably out of control, and the same goes for three investors on a board. This is tough to do in early stage, venture-backed companies, but putting on my Chairman of Common Angels hat, there are always ways around this problem of over-stacking of boards with equity investors.
- Sales expertise is critical. Today, most emerging and even well-estalished companies either fail outright or hit a major speed bump because they lack heavily experienced sales expertise. The first requirement is that management deal with this themselves in their hiring of their own sales teams. Since the world of sales and marketing is undergoing huge revolutions in process, structure, comp, platforms and technologies (and just about everything else), I strongly advise having one deeply experienced sales exec with a perspective from selling into a variety of similar markets among your directors.
- Balance the time. Whatever the length of the board meeting, and assuming that the business is at least somewhat stable, plan only 20% of the time for review of what occurred during the prior period. Force 80% of the discussions to future issues or strategic directions on one or two longer term opportunities. In order to do that, all materials need to be delivered to the directors 2-3 days in advance of the meeting, plus you'll need a strong chairman to insure this discipline.
If you're on one board or multiple boards today, read the McKinsey article above and take a look at the graphic below, and then just ask yourself if you and your fellow board members are "traditional" or "forward looking"? In my own case, this article sets an agenda for me for this year to become a better board member and challenge myself...and maybe some of my other directors...to think and act differently about our roles and activities this year.
Having thought about these ideas for my own board activities and thinking ahead for this summer, I also feel that I need to kick it up a couple of notches in terms of my work with our customers in Sales Optimization and especially in Social Selling. The very good news about this challenge is that it looks like another long summer of "Books on the Beach".
Here's my current list. What do you want to add here? Sales? Marketing? Maybe board activities?
Jack's 2014 Summer Reading List:
The Challenger Sale
To Sell is Human
Drive
Whiteboard Selling
Cracking the Sales Manager's Code
Sales Management & Motivation
Social Media Explained
Social Media for Salespeople
The Art of Social Selling
The End of Business as Usual
Keep Selling! Keep Running! Keep Challenging! Keep Learning!
