I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about the biggest issues facing private company owners and board members. Two years ago, the 2019-2020 NACD Private Company Governance Survey pointed to many disruptive trends that continue to challenge private company directors today. Competition for talent remains a major obstacle. Cybersecurity threats have become more and more sophisticated. Private company directors still struggle to keep up with the quickening speed of technology and innovation.
These challenges, along with many others, including the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, will continue to test the mettle of private company owners and directors. But the content for this edition of Private Company Director reminds us that whatever the challenge facing a company, nothing is going to be fixed without an efficient, well-run, ideally constructed board. Therefore, the question we sought to answer in this edition is, “What does it take to build a better board?”
Stocking a board with proficient directors means recruiting effectively and then making a successful introduction to the board so that the new director can begin making an immediate impact. This is addressed in Dottie Schindlinger’s feature, “How to Onboard New Directors,” in which she stresses the importance of creating a comprehensive director onboarding plan and establishing strong relationships with fellow board members and senior leadership.
Once a company has recruited and onboarded its ideal board members, how do you make sure you maximize their effectiveness? In “A Well-Planned Agenda Is Key to a Productive Board Meeting,” Jeremy S. Lurey, Ph.D., provides tips for optimizing the board’s engagement. He stresses the importance of adhering to an annual calendar for both when the board will meet and what they will discuss and carving out time for executive sessions, at which time directors can speak freely to each other outside the ears of company managers.
The idea that effective meetings should be made up of collaborative, thought-provoking discussion, not the reading of endless reports, also came up in my conversations with 2022 Private Company Director Magazine Directors to Watch Steve Albrecht and Glenn Wilson in “Leveraging Your Board’s Contacts and Influence.” This piece features two accomplished directors discussing how companies can best track and use their board members’ expertise, as well as what questions should be asked to ensure that directors are providing appropriate input to company leaders.
The inclusion of Albrecht and Wilson on the 2022 Directors to Watch list points to another “easier said than done” truism: Want to have a board that runs like clockwork? Get yourself some all-star directors. Check out the entire Private Company Directors to Watch section to see who else made the cut for this year’s list.
Elsewhere in the issue, we focus on what it takes to maintain a board’s excellence. In “The Power of an Effective Board Evaluation,” directors Meghan Juday, Allen Bettis, Lynn Clarke and D’Anne Hurd discuss how board evaluations should work and the different ways these measuring sticks can be approached. Written survey? Individual interviews? Outside administrators? Read about the pros and cons of each.
As you think through building a better board, consider attending the Private Company Governance Summit, taking place June 15-17 at the JW Marriott Washington, D.C. The conference will include sessions on board compensation and becoming and remaining an effective director, while also featuring our annual Private Company Boards of the Year awards presentation. There’s no better place to determine how you can take your board to the next level.