Even the most successful companies have problems that management would rather keep to themselves.
We work with management teams and boards to develop their ability to have honest conversations about troubling issues, early on.
We work with management teams and boards to develop their ability to have honest conversations about troubling issues, early on.
Leading an organisation is hard work and it's lonely.
A good board will win the confidence of its management and will be seen as the provider of a safe forum for discussing emerging ideas, projects, successes and most importantly - failures.
Less skilful boards can be seen by management as yet another problem to be overcome. 'Dealing with the board' turns into its own business objective involving the presentation of the positives and the suppression or concealment of negatives.
Unskilful management, for their part, irritate their boards by wasting time with poorly reasoned papers and the opaque presentation of data whilst they burn time and energy obsessing about how to keep the NEDs onside and the Chair at arm's length.
Result:
The board doesn't hear about problems early enough to be able to help and the cost is borne by the business, its shareholders and the reputations of all those involved.
However, when management and board do talk freely, problems can be aired before they become toxic and solutions thought through by a collection of minds with a variety of options to play with.
Quality, early conversations between the two teams enable revenue growth because mistakes are learned from and risks and opportunities are correctly assessed and successfully pursued or avoided.