60. Lisa Thompson - Becoming an impactful board member

Lisa Spadafora Thompson the founder and CEO of Sturbridge Growth Partners, a virtual network of consultants, thought leaders, and practitioner specializing in growth strategies, talks about her experience as a consultant and how she has used those skill to become an impactful board member. 

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Links:

Bio: linkedin.com/in/lisa-spadafora-thompson

Articles:

https://venturebeat.com/datadecisionmakers/act-dont-react-managing-inflationary-pressures-in-enterprise-software/

https://www.lotisblueconsulting.com/insights/there-has-never-been-a-better-time-to-shockproof-your-business/

Big Ideas/Thoughts/Quotes:

Sturbridge Growth Partners

Lisa founded Sturbridge Growth Partners to serve companies in various B2B industries with customized, actionable strategies without the high fees of large consulting firms.

“Strategic pricing in B2B markets involves understanding the value you create for customers and how to maximize the value capture in the form of price.”

Board members should ask leadership more questions about how much economic value they create for customers, whether they’re maximizing the amount they can capture, and whether they’re negotiating with customers in ways that drive competitive advantage.”

Monitor Group

Lisa served on the board of The Monitor Group, a consulting firm acquired by Deloitte.

“Six years after joining The Monitor Group, I was elected to the board of directors by my peers, who were the other partners in the firm.

Shortly after winning, one of the most senior partners in the firm said, “You know why you won, right?” I laughed and said, “No, why don’t you tell me.” He said, "Because you have the ability to take on the important and contentious issues, and you need a lot of courage to do that on a board. You have that courage. That's why you got elected. Don't ever forget that.’”

What did you learn as a board member during the process through which Deloitte acquired the Monitor Group?

“One of the most important things I learned during that process is that we can tend to hyper focus on hard skills. But being on a board, particularly at a contentious period of time, the soft skills win the day - the people who can take on the tough issues in a way that aligns people, that was critically important for us during that time.”

Twin Valley Companies

Lisa serves on the board of Twin Valley Companies, a 4th generation family-owned managed service provider and telecom products business based in Kansas City.  The organization and the family have a very  deep-rooted culture and community in the cities and towns that they serve.

Lisa, how did you get onto the Twin Valley board?

“I applied for the Twin Valley board through an organization called the Private Directors Association (PDA) where I’ve been a member for 3 years.”

As a lifelong consultant, I've worked in a variety of different industries. The CEO liked that I had manufacturing experience, hardware, software/SaaS, and other B2B services. They weren’t looking for more telecom expertise – they wanted to learn from other industries.”

“One of the things I love most about this board is that we’re committed to operating at the highest levels of governance. We even hired an external firm to help us develop into a high-performing board. Not all private companies will do that, but they should because when companies have excellent governance they grow, and they grow profitably. That benefits all stakeholders.”

African Entrepreneurial System

Lisa is an advisor to Harambe, “a group of some of the most prominent, amazing entrepreneurs I have ever met from countries all over Africa.” They have started businesses that are geared towards solving some of the biggest problems that the continent faces, like high youth unemployment rates, increasing crop yields (80% of the arable land in the world is in Africa), and getting access to credit.

Semicolon

I was asked to join the advisory board of Semicolon, which is based in Nigeria, but expanding to serve many countries in Africa. They’re teaching young people to write software code. They’re getting jobs in the US and the UK and other parts of Europe yet continuing to live in their villages in Nigeria. So, they’re making US/UK salaries with a Nigerian cost of living. That’s game-changing for them and their families.

DGL

Lisa is involved in DGL (Doegode Leiba), a startup focused on enterprise risk management software (SaaS). The board's focus is on fundraising, strategy development, and hands-on involvement.

It was founded by a man from Ghana, who now lives in the US. “The founder recognized that a small number of issues drive the majority of risks in most organizations, especially mid-sized and large ones. He’s systemizing the process and developing a SaaS offering around it.”

EWOB (Extraordinary Women on Boards)

Extraordinary Women on Boards (EWOB) - absolutely one of the best organizations I’ve ever encountered…a high caliber group of women, who have a lot of board experience. That’s been

particularly valuable for me because I love learning from others who have even more experience than I do.