A news article in Mint this week (which is definitely one of the better newspapers in my opinion - one of the few that has insights rather than old fashioned sensationalized reporting) carried an article about the Top 10 trends in VC/PE industry. Very appropriate and in with the times and not too dissimilar to my earlier post.
Keeping in mind the anthropology of Indians (overpromise and under deliver) and having lived through more than 30 odd board meetings, there are a few insights I have developed on what makes for an effective board meeting.
A board meeting ( or for that matter a performance review meeting) is meant to be a plan for the medium term (3 months - 1 year) and to that extent is forward looking. But most board meetings start off as a prolonged post mortem - what's worse is the collective wisdom of all people in the room is channelized, not into inferring from the results, but in doing the autopsy. That is because most people glean through the numbers for the first time during the board meeting.
There are very useful post on this by Brad Feld and also by Guy Kawasaki which make for useful reading in a different cultural context.
Advance preparation : Most board meetings meander for the first one hour because people are turning over pages of the board pack for the first time and making notes and asking for clarifications on minutiae (what USD rate have you used, what is our accounting policy when it comes to product development costs etc.) which are simply inane and are a drain on everyone's time. Advance preparation by the company and also by the board members helps roll back at least an hour of everyone's time (which should be worth a few tens of thousands of dollars in any case).
Have the CEO/keyman drive the show: This is really the way it needs to be driven in India where legacy/loyalty/"outsider-insider" issues tend to fire up the NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome. ("Oh no, it is too difficult to try and it does not work in this case"). However, it is important to work on the CEO's mind and ensure that he develops the flexibility and openness of mind to listen to others and try out new ideas. Bonding with the rest of the team over lunch/breakfast informally and drawing on their perspectives and views (on the company, industry, new ideas, immediate priorities etc.) is a necessary add-on to complete this piece.
No open praises: Indians by their very nature tend to have a very high opinion of themselves. By patting someone (unless the company has re-defined all expectations), you are asking for even more complacency down the line. You would expect senior management of any company to be self-driven and not look for external stimuli to propel them on. Would'nt you ?
Lay down immediate priorities: Ah, this more often than not, is the single biggest bummer that makes the meeting feel like a matinee show. Too often ideas that are discussed are chimerical (5-10 years ahead) or are too far off the organization's skill sets (for eg., if discussing about customer behaviour tracking in a retail chain). This is where the succeeding point comes into play - priorities have to get converted into actionables that are tracked meeting after meeting;
If you the company has a vision to serve a million customers in 5 years, a 100,000 next quarter surely won't hurt. So what needs to be done to serve 100,000 customers next quarter - what are the implications for sales and distribution, product, pricing, promotions, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain and inventory. If this does not get translated into actionables and is followed up meticulously, the vision will remain, not surprisingly, a vision forever.
Convert agreed upon priorities into action items: "what gets monitored truly gets done" - Need I say more ?
Have a great new year ahead and this year should be sure fun to watch for the PE industry.
~varadha.r1@gmail.com
Keeping in mind the anthropology of Indians (overpromise and under deliver) and having lived through more than 30 odd board meetings, there are a few insights I have developed on what makes for an effective board meeting.
A board meeting ( or for that matter a performance review meeting) is meant to be a plan for the medium term (3 months - 1 year) and to that extent is forward looking. But most board meetings start off as a prolonged post mortem - what's worse is the collective wisdom of all people in the room is channelized, not into inferring from the results, but in doing the autopsy. That is because most people glean through the numbers for the first time during the board meeting.
There are very useful post on this by Brad Feld and also by Guy Kawasaki which make for useful reading in a different cultural context.
Advance preparation : Most board meetings meander for the first one hour because people are turning over pages of the board pack for the first time and making notes and asking for clarifications on minutiae (what USD rate have you used, what is our accounting policy when it comes to product development costs etc.) which are simply inane and are a drain on everyone's time. Advance preparation by the company and also by the board members helps roll back at least an hour of everyone's time (which should be worth a few tens of thousands of dollars in any case).
Have the CEO/keyman drive the show: This is really the way it needs to be driven in India where legacy/loyalty/"outsider-insider" issues tend to fire up the NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome. ("Oh no, it is too difficult to try and it does not work in this case"). However, it is important to work on the CEO's mind and ensure that he develops the flexibility and openness of mind to listen to others and try out new ideas. Bonding with the rest of the team over lunch/breakfast informally and drawing on their perspectives and views (on the company, industry, new ideas, immediate priorities etc.) is a necessary add-on to complete this piece.
No open praises: Indians by their very nature tend to have a very high opinion of themselves. By patting someone (unless the company has re-defined all expectations), you are asking for even more complacency down the line. You would expect senior management of any company to be self-driven and not look for external stimuli to propel them on. Would'nt you ?
Lay down immediate priorities: Ah, this more often than not, is the single biggest bummer that makes the meeting feel like a matinee show. Too often ideas that are discussed are chimerical (5-10 years ahead) or are too far off the organization's skill sets (for eg., if discussing about customer behaviour tracking in a retail chain). This is where the succeeding point comes into play - priorities have to get converted into actionables that are tracked meeting after meeting;
If you the company has a vision to serve a million customers in 5 years, a 100,000 next quarter surely won't hurt. So what needs to be done to serve 100,000 customers next quarter - what are the implications for sales and distribution, product, pricing, promotions, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain and inventory. If this does not get translated into actionables and is followed up meticulously, the vision will remain, not surprisingly, a vision forever.
Convert agreed upon priorities into action items: "what gets monitored truly gets done" - Need I say more ?
Have a great new year ahead and this year should be sure fun to watch for the PE industry.
~varadha.r1@gmail.com
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