Your Board Is Your Biggest Business Blockade

In the digital age, is the Board of Directors blocking your business from growing as quickly as it could be?

I’ve read countless articles by consultants about how the creation of a Board of Directors will be the best thing to ever happen to your business.

They bring diverse backgrounds.  They bring expertise.  They bring leadership.  They bring talent.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.

Time for a little contrarian perspective.  In the digital age, a board can also be your biggest business blockade.

I recently had the pleasure of submitting a proposal to a “Board of Directors”.  None of them had actual business experience in the real world.  They were a bunch of academics who got their rocks off trying to dissect everything that went against “theory” in the proposal.

Why would we bother putting a proposal in front of them, you ask?  Simple.  I enjoy a little torture every once in a while.  Sometimes shark-tanking it out can help a business grow…and help you understand potential obstacles that you might face with other businesses. 

They accepted our proposal.  I withdrew our offer.  I realized I didn't build in enough money to the budget to cover the amount of tequila I'd need to put up with them.

Everything is so fast paced in today’s world and having a board might be slowing you down. Unless you are required by law to have one, why would you continue with the hassle?

With a board there are a lot of times where problems don’t get resolved and decisions aren’t made because there is a lot of disagreement among the members.  Lack of diversity both in mindset and cultural backgrounds can create an environment where debate takes off and solutions never happen.  Sometimes trying to get a board to make a decision is like trying to get a cruise ship to make a left hand turn.  And in an age where we need to respond quickly and take advantage of opportunities that a social media world may present us with...perhaps a board is a bigger blockade than you thought.

If you do have a board of directors, I’m sure you’ve experienced those members that don’t have the slightest clue what they are doing there.  Having members that lack the skills they should have as a person with such power creates lots of wasted time for company, because that member is not really a fulfilling their role so others have to pick up that slack.

There are many programs used to keep board members in check and doing what they should be doing, according to the consultants.  For example, discussing the performance of members with the rest of the board.

Oh, great.  There’s a valuable investment of time.

Don’t you have other things to talk about?  If you are spending your board meetings discussing the problems with the board, then why do you even have one?

Due to these types of conversations, boards aren’t addressing needed topics such as social media risk and cyber-security risks.  Think I’m off?  A recent study found that only 35% of people said their board had discussed social media risk as an agenda item in the last year and only 15% were “very confident” their board is adequately overseeing cyber-security risks.

Maybe it's time to consider whether it's helping or hurting to have that board after all...

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Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, New England's #1 Marketing Agency. We're a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology. You can find him on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.