Your board of directors can be a value accelerator for your company. An engaged board can also make you a more successful leader of your company.
I have found that leaders of many medium sized and smaller companies do not understand the value of a fully functioning board of directors – for their company and for themselves. My nationally published article,
Your Board of Directors – Pain in the Butt or Valuable Asset, explored why some leaders resist strengthening their board and the benefits they are missing.
Gregg Stein runs Triple G Ventures. Gregg interviewed me for his Success at Scale Podcast. We talked about why a fully engaged board of directors can be valuable to companies of all sizes. Gregg is a drummer like I am a sailor. You will enjoy the energy of this short video.
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Yes, CEO needs Board whose primary responsibility is to hire and back up the CEO. If this fit is not appropriate, after say a couple of years of hiring and backing up, then it is the Board's responsibility to replace that CEO. All individuals need assistance and back up and a safe place to air their concerns, especially in issues that are 'foreign' to them. This is where Boards are that safe place to go.
Rick—
Great piece……I sat on a board representing a significant investor in a tech company in 2008 and asked them what they planned to do to react to the economic environment—their answer was a 4 to 5% cut in expenses. I told them without a >25% cut they wouldn’t survive. Fortunately, the majority investor in the company was also on the board and told the fairly arrogant CEO that he agreed with me and if he could formulate a plan to cut expenses by 30% and present it in a week, then his successor would be able to do that.
They cut expenses by 31% and three years later were sold very profitably.
Too many companies/CEOs haven’t seen this kind of downturn to understand how to survive.