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Category Archives: Depending upon others
Good board members are as valuable as good executives.
Perhaps this is the natural conclusion from the several insights previously explored. While the CEO and management offers the vision, strategies and tactics as well as the proposed budget, it is the board that controls with its votes the execution … Continue reading
Board members should be elected annually.
No board member should be grandfathered, guaranteed a board seat forever. Practically speaking, this is an impossible goal. We have investigated the restrictions imposed by investment documents and the obvious need to keep continuity on the board with the retention … Continue reading
Fight for balance on your board!
In my last insight, I described the CEO who stacked the board with two friends, making a majority for control purposes and relegating the investor representatives to insignificance. There were no outside board members with industry experience, no members the … Continue reading
The need for a board grows with complexity
Start-ups with one founder rarely have or need a board of directors. In fact, such a board would seem out of place in a one person company. As soon as any outside money is ingested into the corporation, others have … Continue reading
Consultants are only as good as the advice you take.
At one time or another, most all businesses use consultants to fill the gaps in knowledge or to provide guidance for management. Consultants are good in that you can sample their work with short projects, change to other consultants … Continue reading
Accountants “plan-alyze”. Bookkeepers count beans.
This is a distinction we need to repeat on occasion, especially for new CEO’s looking to pay a low wage for advanced financial analysis, whether with an independent contractor or an employee. Accountants are trained, certified and usually quite experienced … Continue reading
The value of legal advice isn’t measured by a law degree.
Over the years in business and as a member of over forty boards, I have received good advice from corporate attorneys and on occasion bad advice as well. There is a line that should be drawn in a relationship … Continue reading
How do you manage and measure home-based employees?
Do home-based employees work with the same dedication and productivity as those in office cubicles next to each other? That depends upon the management as much as the employee. I have a friend who is a CEO of a … Continue reading
Does even a taste of ownership make a difference?
How about incentives for employees all the way down the line and through the corporation? How do we align them to the goals and strategies of the enterprise? Obviously for the appropriate individuals, a bonus program aligned to the … Continue reading
Cash is only ONE measure of employee happiness.
In 1981, Herb Cohen published “You Can Negotiate Anything”, an excellent guide to great negotiating. I’ve read and reread the book a number of times and find myself using the techniques often in many areas of my life. One of … Continue reading
