On Boards Podcast

Yvonne Schlaeppi is passionate about corporate strategy, and she believes it's one of the most important things a board can do for their company. Spending a significant amount of time on board work, across many companies and several continents, Yvonne is highly experienced and enthusiastic in her work as a board member.

Having built a strong background working on boards in the U.S., UK and Europe, Yvonne shares her insight into the differences in boards across countries, how to navigate difficult decisions, and what we can learn from observing other boards in action.

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Big Ideas

Differences in structures and culture between U.S. and European boards. [08:27]

What we can learn from observing other boards. [22:31]

Quotes

"I do believe that being more present and involved and learning more about the company and what it's going through makes for a more effective board." [05:45]

"Most boards would be well-served to spend more time on strategy, which is really where they can make their best contribution." [27:27]

"The baseline for good board practice is to ensure, as best as you can as a board member, that your board undertakes decision-making in a deliberative, prudential and reasoned way." [30:03]

It's easy to think of companies as big, faceless organizations, valued only for profit margins or stock potential. But it's precisely when organizations are viewed only by the numbers, and not by the people working within them, that company culture suffers and things can go south.

Rick Williams knows that the key to success is creating an atmosphere of openness and trust that makes for a great board of directors or advisors, and a healthy company overall. Rick spent many years as a consultant, founded his own real estate investment company, and returned to consulting once again. He has been an executive, board member and board chair - in addition to mentoring CEO's. Now authoring his first book, Create the Future For Your Company and Yourself, Rick shares his most valuable insights into corporate culture and governance boards – namely that the best thing you can do for your company is to honor the people within it.

Links

Arthur D. Little Consulting

Boston Consulting Group

McKinsey & Company

Quotes

"It's a very human process…The truth is [companies] are collections of people working together." [06:42]

"You have to be somebody who's an empathetic listener." [11:40]

"The leader has to set cultural expectations. So it has to be expectations for openness, trust, willingness to actually engage in difficult conversations. That's where the culture part of it comes in." [20:42]

Big Ideas

The nexus of Williams' new book and how it can benefit companies as a whole. [06:56]

Creating an atmosphere of faith in transition of leadership. [11:30]

How to develop a culture of trust and openness. [21:04]

Thanks for listening!

We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here.

Episode Overview

Larry Siff joins hosts Joe Ayoub and Raza Shaikh to explore what makes a board of directors effective and productive, what qualities makes a strong and valuable board member and how can a board add value to and help drive a business to achieve its goals.

Larry has deep and extensive board experience, both as a board member, averaging 6 board seats a year for over 30 years, and as an advisor to hundreds of companies, half of which have been family businesses. He has been the CEO of Neptune Advisors which helps middle market companies position themselves for strategic growth, since founding it 10 years ago. He is also the CEO of C-Level Community, a membership based platform that connects middle market leaders, which he founded 3 years ago, and has served as CEO of 7 middle market companies.

Highlights Include

• Larry's first board was a non-profit board at an early age and he has been driven to give back to the community throughout his career. Importance of understanding the mission from the perspective of those that the organization serves. A person served by his first non-profit said to him: "You brought the outside world back to me"

• C-Level Community – they have consistently hosted some of the most interesting breakfast gatherings in the business world.

• What sets the stage for an effective Board - an actionable, viable business plan, and a board built on the skills/expertise that will drive that business plan to the future.

• Discussion about building a business/strategic plan with actionable steps – and the role of a board in creating that plan.

• A business plan should define priorities and how to achieve them. It must be an active, workable, livable plan – everyone needs to understand their role in servicing the plan. And everyone has to be vested in making the plan succeed and be accountable for their role in doing so.

• Attributes of a strong Board member. Experience helps - one way to gain board experience is in the non-profit world.

• A board member must understand that is a fiduciary obligation to deliver enhanced strategic value add that accelerates a company's growth. You've got to be able to mentor the CEO and the senior management and build a culture of both innovation and accountability.

• A strong board culture, built on trust and transparency, are paramount. Among others things, communication should come to the board from the CEO every month – it can be an email or a call, but the board should not go three months without knowing what's happening in the business

• Preparation by board members should always be done before the board meeting, not during the meeting. You should never see a board member reviewing information during the meeting for the first time or hear a question that is clearly addressed in the materials.

• PowerPoint presentations should be sent in advance – focus on key issues during the meeting rather than "dog and pony shows."

• Boards should focus on long term strategy 3, 5 and 10 years from now. For the board to add value for the company they need to focus on the success of the company. How do we make this company successful? How can we as board members really focus on the future? Not on yesterday, not on today, but on the future and making sure that's where the board is spending its time.

• The board cannot be afraid to challenge. There has to be constructive dissent. That said, when a decision is made, even if you don't agree with a particular decision as a board member, the decision has been made.

• Board members have got to think and act like an owner, whether they actually own stock or not.

• Challenge of off-boarding: easy to ask someone on a board, very hard to ask them off! A lot of CEOs or Board chairs don't want uncomfortable conversations and hesitate to have one they think will be uncomfortable when it comes to asking someone to leave the board.

• A conversation with an unproductive board member starts with the expectations set when that person joined the board. You've defined the expectations up front, and by doing that, when you have a board member who's not performing, you can to sit down with the board member and have a conversation.

• Value of executive sessions with and without the presence of the CEO.

Co-hosts Raza Shaikh and Joe Ayoub discuss the January 2020 launch of their podcast On Boards Podcast: A Deep Dive at Driving Business Success.

A company's Board of Directors or Advisors often has a pivotal role in the success or failure of a business, whether a company or organization lives or dies - - and whether the people who have invested time, money and emotional capital will succeed.

On Boards Podcast: A Deep Dive at Driving Business Success, is about everything related to Boards of Directors and Boards of Advisors. Twice a month, in 30 minutes, hear and learn about all aspects of boards and business governance.

In each episode co-hosts Raza Shaikh and Joe Ayoub interview a guest who has experience with boards - as a board member, a CEO, an investor or an advisor, among other roles, for a conversation on a wide range of topics including:

• What makes great boards great?
• What makes a board unsuccessful?
• How to be a good board member?
• How to make your board one of the most valuable assets of your company.

They discuss public, private, non-profit and start-ups (which they believe is its own category) boards - the work they do, the impact they have and their potential to be profoundly impactful on the organization they serve.

On Boards Podcast is for anyone who is a board member, would like serve on a board, is an owner of a business, a member of a non-profit organization, an investor in a business or is interested in Board of Directors or Boards of Advisors or business governance.