No, You Don’t Need C-suite on Your CV to Be Board-Worthy

Is your Board truly innovative? Take a moment to think about that. The answer is probably ‘not so much’. Does it need to be? Absolutely - now more than ever. Be honest: how close does your Board get to new and disruptive business models? Do Board members mentor start-ups? Do they invest in small businesses? Are they running their own side hustle? These are all such important ways to stay fresh and learn. 

More businesses are beginning to understand the need for digital and are hiring NEDs specifically for that purpose, which I love to see. However, I know first-hand that there’s a bias right now against people who consult vs. people who are coming fresh off operational CEO experience.

Recruiters and the companies they represent feel they’ll get more value out of a ‘doer’ than an ‘advisor’, but I question the rationale behind that bias. Your new digital NED doesn’t have to be a CEO from a tech business. Yes, there are a lot of times where that’s worked really well. However, consultants have experienced a wide range of different business models and business sectors, and they also know how to get up and running within an environment pretty quickly. They have to read the room, understand the axes of power, understand the business drivers and identify what's working and what isn't. The approach and the methodology they apply in their consulting and advisory work is the same that they would apply to understanding a Board situation and quickly getting to grips with a business at the macro-level.

The Old Rules Just Don’t Apply Anymore

We’re seeing a seismic shift in very established industries. Just look at the finance sector. It’s a sector that has always had a rigid perspective, but the financial landscape has been completely turned on its head and it will no longer pay to keep doing things in the same old ways.

The fact that everything can turn on a dime means that it’s more crucial than ever before to ingrain innovation in your business. Organisations need to be agile and dynamic; they have to connect differently to their consumers now. Ensuring diversity in your Board isn't just important for ticking certain boxes, it's actually essential to ensure diversity of experience as well. To me, that’s common sense, but there are still a lot of places where it's not being applied.

I make it a point to mix up my advisory with pro-bono work with start-ups and scale-ups via organisations like All Together as well as informally via my network. I do this because I always want to stay close to the coal face. I make it my job to be exposed to and speak with CEOs of different start-ups and enterprises all the time, to really understand what is out there. I make it my job to always be current.

As a result, one of the most valuable things I bring to the Boards I sit on is a cross-pollination of ideas and perspectives, which comes from having my fingers in so many different pies. It’s not just about my Rolodex; it's about my saying, “I just heard that this really worked over at X, maybe it could work over here,” or, “I think you’d find it really useful if you talk to this person.”

You Need the Right Sort of Non-Exec for the Right Sort of Business

When it comes to hiring a NED, it’s never a case of one-size-fits-all. However, a lot of businesses are still in the dark about the right sort of person they need, so recruiters end up with the wrong briefs. The companies that should be ditching the bias and giving these sorts of consultants an opportunity; the companies that need people on their Board who are exposed to a broad variety of different scenarios, for a wider view of what’s available and what good looks like? Essentially, any company in which digital drives business outcomes and drives the customer experience in a significant way. Which, in 2021, is nearly every organisation.

Who else is on your Board? If you already have a few big-name CEOs, what are you missing? For example, a huge part of maintaining sticky consumers, ensuring regular revenue, and great EBIT is actually about having a powerful digital strategy and an exceptional customer loyalty program. So, if I were a ￡50 million business looking to exit, I’d be wanting to hire a non-exec who could demonstrate agility and a deep understanding of digital. I’d be looking to hire someone who knew how to stay current. What if your business is looking to find strategic acquisitions? Then you need a digital non-exec with their eyes on the ground and a profound understanding of everything that’s coming out of the start-up world.

“What Are You Doing to Stay Current?”

That’s what I’d be asking every digital non-exec candidate. A lot of businesses and recruiters like to think that CEOs are the most current, and I would say that yes, they are incredibly current in their very specific use cases. However, they often don’t see it as being in their interest to go out and understand broader business models and different tech solutions.

Governance and operational skills don't change all that much but understanding how to connect with consumers and remain current and innovative changes on a daily basis. So actually, as long as the operational part has been there at some point before, a person with that understanding will potentially be much more valuable to a business than a person whose last role was as a CEO.

When I talk about remaining current, I’m not suggesting that organisations start paying their employees in cryptocurrency. What I’m saying is that every Board needs to be leveraging a variety of experiences in different businesses, so that those Board members can cross-pollinate and start connecting different dots. There needs to be a format and a way that Boards can engage with these sorts of topics and questions, so that the business can adopt a new mindset to really connect with innovation, assess it, and understand if it's going to impact them, and whether adjustments are needed. Sure, you might decide to dismiss ideas but at least you've gone through the rigor of saying asking, “Is this important to us?”

The Tech Spec

Interesting tech (and tech-related content) I’ve seen:

•  CB Insights - A global database providing market intelligence on private companies and investor activities. 
• 2021 Trend Reports - Reports on 2021 trends from across the agency, consulting, and business industries to empower brands to make better decisions.
• Milanote - An easy-to-use tool to organise ideas and projects into visual boards.
• Miro – A visual collaboration platform that helps companies to create, collaborate and centralise communication across departments.
• Also asked - A tool to inspire content ideas and identify large content gaps in a relational way.
• Value Based Management- In-depth summaries of over 250+ MBA methods on strategy, performance management, finance, valuation, change, corporate governance, communication and marketing.

Written by Gabrielle Hase.

CEO of Soleberry Advisory and digital Non-Executive Director. I want to help solve the problem of the lack of appropriate female and digital skills and perspectives at the board table. 

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