The Care and Feeding of Advisory Board Members Part 1

Parry Aftab's Blog

English - March 04, 2014 13:17 - ★★★★★ - 1 rating
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Next Episode: The Care and Feeding of Advisory Boards – SWOT Selection Part 2

Why are you considering creating an advisory
board? Is it to add expertise? To provide air cover by letting their
reputations speak for yours? Do your competitors have advisory boards of their
own? Is it to better understand your important markets or stakeholders? Is it
for good will? Or media attention?

If you are serious about having one, make
sure that you have clear goals, articulate those goals and get your prospective
members to commit to those goals.

2.
Is your goal worth it? There is a cost to
developing and maintaining an advisory board. Compensation is an obvious cost,
as are stock grants or options. But other costs aren’t so obvious.

There are opportunity costs. For every
advisory board member you appoint, there is one that you didn’t. This may
involve hurt feelings and the possibility that the ones you passed over may not
be there when you need them.

Political scrabbles are a cost as well.
Working with advisory board members can be like herding cats. Each has their
own perspective, experience and agendas. When you hire people like this, you
have better control over them than you do when they are asked to contribute
their brand, networks, media clout and reputation outside of their fulltime
work.

Scheduling is always a challenge. The
busier and more important your board members, the harder to schedule a time
when they can all meet face-to-face. Virtual meetings can be scheduled instead,
but are rarely good to real advice, sharing of ideas or directions. Email
communications are too often handled by handlers, not the person who holds the
seat. But real life meetings put enough strain on the already overburdened
schedule of the top choices for advisory boards that the preferred appointees
may not be able to commit.

Your managers will devote substantial time
to informing the advisory board, getting their input and developing
communications. Can anyone reach out to an advisory board member, or are they
managed by a department, division or person? There are manpower and structural
hard costs for creating a system and adhering to it. Legal and compliance teams
have to be involved in creating the policies for the advisory board members and
the board itself. Conflict-of-interest policies, indemnification terms and
insurance coverage should be considered and, if appropriate, adopted.