Corporate Boardbound Workshop—March 16, 2023
Summary
Summary of Homework
Read the pre-reading to learn about the unique opportunities and challenges of serving on start up boards and public company boards.
Develop a story from your experience that illustrates the value you add to a company’s success.
Come to March meeting prepared to:
share your story in the breakout session
ask any questions you have about
serving on start-up and private company boards
serving on public company boards with emphasis on enterprise risk management
be prepared to sponstaneously role play your responses to different scenarios you could face as a board director
Preparation
Basic Pre-Reading
“Start Up Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors” by Brad Feld, Matt Blumberg and Mahendra Ramsinghani. This is the book you received in January. The whole book is very useful but Section 6 “For Independent Directors and Aspiring Board Members” (pages 192-214) are especially germane to the Corporate Boardbound program.
We are excited to have Matt Blumberg, co-author of the book, join our workshop. He has generously shared his e-book “How to Succeed in Your First Board Role”. Some of the material is in the hard copy book but there is elaboration especially relevant for aspiring board directors.
Amy Rojik will be covering the differentiated responsibilities of public company boards.
BDO Center for Corporate Governance includes good reference material.
“Enterprise Risk Management for Today’s Board Directors” is a relevant podcast.
“Audit Committee Priorities” often have expanded responsibilities for cyber risk and ESG risk.
“The risk paragraph in the management board’s report” by Deloitte provides real-life examples of risk reports to boards of directors.
Optional Pre-Reading
Do not feel you need to read all of this material. Just peruse these resources to see if any are of special interest—or refer back to them if you confront one of these issues as a board director.
If you are pursuing small cap or start-up company boards, you will be faced with more emphasis on fundraising and structuring deals that are attractive to investors but do not unduly give away equity and control. A good reference for these challenges is the book “The Perfect Corproate Board: A Handbook for Mastering the unique Challenges of Small-Cap Compnaies” by Adam J. Epstein.
Small Company—Board’s Role in Sales Oversight by Margot Carter.
Director’s Guidebook: How to be an Effective Board Director in Early Stage Companies by Hambleton Lord and Christopher Mirabile.
“Startup Boards” by Brad Feld for Kauffman FoundersSchool. Brad Feld explains why and how the board of directors is a formal construct that essentially provides governance for the company. This is a series of short videos directed to the entrepreneur who is forming a startup board.
“2021 Study of Gender Diversity on Private Company Boards” by Ann Shepherd. Cites study from Him for Her and Crunchbase which shows women are very underrepresented in Venture Capital backed boards versus public company boards.
“The Alternate Universe: The small, young company board” by Deloitte’s Center for Board Effectiveness, July 2021.
“A Differentiated, Practical Methodology for Analyzing Public Company Board Seat Opportunities” by Small-Cap Institute.
“3 Critical Small-Cap Challenges Awaiting New Board Members That No One Talks About” by Small-Cap Institute.
Cybersecurity: staying vigilant through prevention, oversight and governance | EY - US (article)
Homework Exercises
What size company will most prize you? Give thought as to what size company you are targeting and why.
Large Cap—greater than $10 B market cap (difficult for first board)
Mid Cap--$2B to $10B market cap
Small Cap--$300M to $2B market cap (more hands-on)
Micro Cap—less than $300M market cap (more hands-on)
Private Board (can be more hands-on depending on the size)
Advisory Board (can be good experience)
Sharing a Story—Think of a story from your experience that illustrates how you added value to a company. Stories are what we remember. Having a few stories that bring alive a situation you handled well and illustrate different points that could come up in an interview will help distinguish you. Be concise but include enough specifics that the listener feels like they are there with you. What happened? Why did it make a difference?
Plan on sharing one of your stories in our first breakout session.
Role Playing Board Scenarios—John Kelley, CEO and Corporate Board Director and Corporate Boardbound mentor developed some situations directors face. One way John has helped many people prepare for board positions is to role play scenarios that they may face. Handling these situations on the spot and then debriefing has been a great way to increase confidence and give candidates an edge when many well-qualified people are considered for a board position. You will have an opportunity to role play some of these situations at the workshop.
Optional Homework
Have you taken advantage of signing up with Bolster yet? Boardbound partners with Bolster so you can be listed in their database for board director candidates. Bolster supports high-growth venture capital and private equity-backed companies, ranging from $2mm to $100mm in revenue and pre-seed to pre-IPO, all looking to get connected to fresh executive talent. Here is the link to sign up. There is also a guide “Anatomy of a Great Profile” you may find useful.
Director Diversity Initiative is offering a free webinar “PE Portfolio Company Boards” on April 20th from 2 to 3 pm Mountain time.
If you are interested in preparing to serve on a Private Company Start-Up board, you may want to register for NACD’s “Private Company Governance Learning Series”.
Agenda
Learning Objectives
To understand the unique requirements of serving on a start up or small private company board of directors.
To understand the additional responsibilities of serving on a public company board with an emphasis on enterprise risk management.
To mentally prepare for situations you face as a director by role playing how you would handle different challenges.
Location: Zoom
Informal Networking at 4:15 pm
Opening begins at 4:30 pm
Click here for recording of the workshop.
Welcome and Purpose | Karen Padgett
Sharing Stories that Demonstrate Success | Breakout Session
Small Company Board of Directors
Start Up Boards | Matt Blumberg | Click here for Matt’s Presentation
Serving on a Small Company Board| BDO with Amy Rojik | Click here for Amy’s Notes
Discussion and Sharing Insights | All facilitated by Karen Padgett
Break
Board Journey
Role Play for Board Director Scenarios | Jo Lynne Whiting
Debrief and Summary | Karen Padgett
Thanks and Closing
Next Steps | Sue Williamson
Feedback Survey
Breakout Facilitator #1—Karen Padgett
Breakout Facilitator #2—Mary McBride
Breakout Facilitator #3—Sue Williamson
Breakout Facilitator #4—Jo Lynne Whiting
Breakout Facilitator #5—Polly Buster