Ten CEO tips for working with the board

Every time I invest in a new business, I routinely send an email to the company's CEO, where I will tell them how to get along with the board. In the past 24 years, I have served as a shareholder of some software companies and some start-ups. The following is my personal experience with some of the suggestions made, I hope can be CEO and director of help.

1. You need to develop a plan that will then gain the understanding and support of the entire company and board of directors.

The board is most concerned about the strategy of an enterprise's business plan. Of course, the plan will change, but savvy CEOs know that we should tell everyone what we've said and how we're doing now, and what's happening, and if plans change, then what has he got? stage.

In fact, the plan is not too complicated, because many business plans are complicated and lengthy, but in fact, the plan should be simple, even if the product is complex, the plan should be simple. The essence of the plan is that it can be as simple as six-year-old children will understand.

For the company's target customers, the company's products, the discussion of the competition should be agreed with the board of directors. You should be informed of your overall arrangement (including timing and hiring requirements, such as how many people you need to set up a team responsible for marketing and selling your product) and your monthly or quarterly budget (including R & D, sales, marketing And administrative services revenue, expenses and net income).

2. Tell us if you changed the plan because of some unimportant reason.

Many of the program changes are due to tactical reasons, such as the product is coming up sooner or later than expected, or the target audience is adjusted, etc. However, I hope that if the plan changes, even if the CEO can control the investment / spending, and You do not have to wait until you are asked, for example, what do you think the phase should do and how you can get better results, and what level of planning do you want to achieve, even if we are not sure whether the current phase is Will increase. Either the entire plan or midway changes should be informed in advance to the board, so the board will let you do your thing. Plans are not perfect, especially for start-ups, plans are often changing, which we can understand.

3. Tell us if you changed the plan for some very important reason

Some of the changes to the plan are due to strategic reasons. The best CEOs are constantly testing and retesting their underlying assumptions. Are we now addressing the key issues? Are we capturing market opportunities? Are we developing the right product? Sold to the right guests? We sell the product way and the marketing is correct? We have imagined so competitive? Our team has everyone looking forward to so good?

Being a CEO is not that simple. For a particular strategy, you have to convince and participate that you must constantly challenge your assumptions without compromising the interests of either party (team, guests, board of directors).

The best CEOs keep focusing on their strategy, but every strategic change is thoughtful and purposeful.

4. It is often harder to admit that a policy error is worse than making a mistake

When a strategy is wrong, it is hard to recognize. It's easy to do a market or product analysis, but it does not work very well. I've seen many companies just starting to find ways to make up for the lack of strategy, but delayed the implementation of more disruptive strategies. In fact, it is not wrong to make up for the inadequacy of a strategy. However, it is necessary to find out whether it is worthwhile to be a teacher and to analyze the nature of the strategy.

5. The combination of the two strategies is usually not a strategy

Regardless of whether a company has a board, it is necessary to develop an excellent strategy. In tennis, you can hit a ball near the baseline or in the net. Both are good tactics and only depend on the circumstances. But if you combine the two methods, hit the ball in the center of the field (often called a no man's land) and you're terrible, it can never be a good strategy. However, many entrepreneurs do not distinguish this, they always follow the old strategy, add another strategy, with limited resource constraints, both failed.

Good strategy should be like this: Assessing the nature of the company - the market, the team, the customer, the competitor, then making a simple one-page SWOT analysis, developing a plan, negotiating with the board of directors, finding a compromise solution, and making A difficult and important decision One of the common mistakes made by traditional entrepreneurs is that giving up a correct strategy too early, adopting a wrong new strategy, imagining that an old strategy may make more for a new strategy and then using both at the same time results in an error decision.

6. Tell some intuitive questions, choose Email, explain complex issues or discuss options, then select the general meeting of shareholders

I hope the CEO can give me a simple email every week, telling me what's important (status of exhibits, employees, income, key partners, etc.). You can also do not have to give that hard work, such as once every two weeks or once a month can be. But the sooner the bad news is to be told, the better. Is not it losing an important customer, is not leaving an important engineer and so on. The road is bumpy, but hopefully you can spot problems and tell everyone before things get worse. Similarly, I hope you did not find the problem or opportunity, but I hope you have problems or opportunities for the corresponding measures have been developed to distinguish the current situation and identify the pros and cons of several options, which is conducive to finding a reasonable solution Program.

7. You use my money, so let's decide what to do

The best way for the board to believe you is to tell the board where to do bad things, not where. But better yet, you've got it all right and everything goes smoothly, just to find potential problems. We would like to discuss some of the key strategic options or adjust our execution rather than the routine, and it would be better to have a simple summary of the financial position, guest situation, product development, partner status, and employee status at a general meeting of shareholders . At the same time, we also hope that you can have a SWOT analysis, let us discuss and decide.

The best companies can try to shorten the general meeting of shareholders, if there are some complex things to discuss, then the general slides up to 10-15 pages better, to allocate some strategic issues of time to invite the Board of Directors The important strategy questioned by outsiders or experts to attend the conference. Lastly, like any other meeting, do not put controversial topics on the board for the first time. Instead, give everyone some time to stop and think about it.

8. There is a need for help, though, we will go all out

Whether recruiting or looking for partners to tap customers, we are willing to help. Let us work and let us praise you in the presence of potential employees. We will ask you some strategic questions, but you need to be more proficient in business than us. We just give you some of our ideas and tell you maybe we can adopt other modes, of course, the premise is correct analysis, not wrong to use the model.

If you give me a call every day or almost do not call ok. But I hope you really will visit from time to time, just as you contact mom in college, as if every time you call for money, it was an accident.

9. Let your executive team attend the general meeting

If the board members (at least one) and all executives will be good enough. It is also a good idea to have an executive team at a general meeting of shareholders to show them areas where they are responsible (product development or sales, marketing, or finance). It is also necessary for the board of directors to hold a secret regular meeting. Ask a consultant to discuss the board's own affairs.

Tell us what it is like now

We want to do something for the company but it can make mistakes at times, and we want to do a better job, but if you tell us where it's done wrong, we'll improve, and if it's reasonable, we'll do it for you, or You let the road make you enjoy, after all, sometimes the best way to participate is to let you do it.

This article was written by Len Jordan, a venture capital partner at Madrona Venture Group and a board member of Cedexis, MaxPoint Interactive, Zapd, Control4, DSIQ, Medio and Wetpaint. Many of the views of this article are proposed from the perspective of directors, perhaps biased, for reference purposes only.

Original link: Ten Tips On How To Work With Your Board Of Directors