|
SOURCING BOARD TALENT: three options.
There are three ways of finding Board talent. Eachoption or combination of options has unique tradeoffs.
No one way is perfect.
Option 1:
TAP INTO THE BOARD'S SOCIAL NETWORK.
Tapping into the Board's collective network is always a good first step. The low cost is its most attractive option.
If you seek Board members who are "frank" and "collegial" because they all think alike, this option is likely to achieve that goal. Board members selected through Board member networks tend to come from similar socioeconomic circles, went to similar schools, and have similar world views. To the visible eye you may have a diverse board in terms of gender and race. But the visible diversity masks a limited business perspective.
Is a narrow problem solving perspective bad?
A narrow focus might be exactly what you want in a highly regulated industry with few strategic options. It might be exactly what you want if "collegial" and "frank" is more important than "thorough" and "creative."
Option 1 is dangerous for companies in highly competitive industries where product life cycles are short.
Option 2:
AUGMENT THE BOARD'S NETWORK WITH BOARD OF DIRECTOR TALENT BANK CANDIDATES.
Having candidates outside the Board's own network might gain valuable perspective.
Talent Banks are inexpensive options to broaden the Board candidate pool.
That's the main advantage.
But it takes time. Do you have the time to do a proper job?
Assume 4-6 hours of your time to find one viable candidate. And you are looking for a panel of 2-4 candidates.
You have to sort through resumes, conduct initial phone screenings, conduct in-depth interviews with candidates, and check references.
There are a number of excellent Board Talent Banks. This list is not exhaustive:
BOARDOPTIONS TALENT BANK. Boardoptions.com has a global network of 800 board qualified individuals. They are both qualified and educated in that they opted for a monthly update on governance education.
Boardoptions.com gets 25 candidates per week but only selects 1-2 each week. There is no charge to submit an application but boardoptions.com decides who gets in. And its decisions are final.
On a Microsoft Explorer browser or Apple Safari go to "Edit" and then look for the "Search" or "Find" tab. Use keywords to come up with potential candidates.
http://www.boardoptions.com/bod.htm
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE DIRECTORS BOARD TALENT BANK. This is a free service of the National Association of Corporate Directors. The list is restricted to those individuals who pay annual fees to join NACD. There is no other screening. The presumption is that there is both interest and competence within the NACD membership.
http://www.nacdonline.org/Resources/content.cfm?ItemNumber=740&navItemNumber=577
BOSTON CLUB. This is a group of senior female executives available to serve on Boards:
http://www.thebostonclub.com/board-placements/corporate-boards/
Option 3:
RETAINED SEARCH:
The disadvantage of using retained search is its cost.
The advantage of using retained search is:
NOT ALL FIRMS ARE ALIKE.
Spencer Stuart has an outstanding reputation for Board recruiting at the Fortune 500 level. Other firms that do a great job at this level include Russell Reynolds, Korn Ferry, and Heidrick & Struggles.
Board Options, Inc. has an outstanding reputation for recruiting "shirtsleeve" Directors for small to mid cap public companies and privately held companies.
All Directors have a fiduciary duty to conduct audit and oversight. Our Board clients typically seek Board members who have the networks and the willingness to open high level doors for companies. This is our definition of "shirtsleeve."
Stybel Peabody has a list of 60,000 business leaders who are evaluated on the strengths of their networks on a scale of 0 to 100. It is called the Personal Power Index. And it gives us an objective measure of the competence of specific candidates in being able to open doors at the right levels.
Called the Personal Power Index, low scores are often associated with a high dependency upon one person in the company for his/her Board role. This can create problems in exercising Duty of Loyalty to shareholders as a whole.
Larry Stybel Board Options, Inc. 60 State Street Boston, MA 02109 Tel. 617 594 7627
|
