Boards were created to oversee strategic business decisions as well as make those decisions of which management is incapable. They help guide the strategic vision and protect the interest of affiliated parties (e.g. investors). For some reason, companies still build boards based on some other set of expectations, and the critical insight and oversight needed so dearly is absent.
During my academic career, I saw boards that were created solely to pander to current and potential donors. The superficial justification was that people with money are people who can really ad some sort of strategic value. Now I know that anyone can argue with my position, but let’s be honest with ourselves, these boards a pretty useless when it comes to oversight. Sure they catch those stupid mistakes, but those things are usually obvious to anyone.
The point I want to make is that whomever you put on your board, make sure that you’ve got at least three intelligent and engaged board members who can make the tough decisions and give you the much needed insight and oversight. Any board that doesn’t at least cover their strategic interest on a few points is absolutely useless.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment