Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Invaluable Advice


The Challenge.  Leadership is lonely.  Navigating the organization from where you are to where you want to be is hard.  Knowing where exactly you should be going can be even harder.  Large, publicly traded companies have the benefits of expensive, fiduciary boards providing oversight, expertise, and feedback.  Well-funded start-ups and VC- and PE-backed operating companies have private boards with experts helping leadership guide the organization.  Many leaders at family businesses and closely held organizations, however, are starving for input from others with outside experience and expertise, with fresh ideas for their organizations.  Even the best leaders, leaders who have great vision and skill, are sharpened by the feedback of other experienced leaders. 

As businesses grow, leadership and governance need to evolve.  As Marshall Goldsmith says, “What got you here won’t get you there.”  What growing organizations and leaders need is an efficient team of strategic experts who are committed to the organization and its leaders.  They need a team of highly qualified leaders providing honest feedback, offering outside perspective, and helping leaders navigate the way forward.

The Resistance.  Many business owners and leaders, though acknowledging how valuable it could be, too often resist creating boards for a number of legitimate reasons.  Sometimes, they don’t know how to get started.  Sometimes, they see too many boards that are ineffective or, worse, dysfunctional.  Sometimes, they are wary for other reasons: fear of losing control; difficulty identifying and recruiting board members; unengaged or uncommitted board members; uncertainty regarding the cost in both time and financial investment. 

Invaluable Advice.  SKM Associates offers a full service professional advisory board solution.  We do the work of advisory board creation and implementation, and you focus on using the strengths of a healthy board to drive your organization forward.  We work with you to compile a multi-disciplinary team of experienced professionals as an advisory board that is tailored to work for you.  You get access to the same expertise as larger companies, at an accessible cost, tailored to your organization, and committed to your success. 

Your advisory board comes to you with, among other benefits, quarterly meetings, monthly reviews, support in monitoring key performance indicators, connections to additional resources and new networks, and more. 


What is holding you back from the invaluable advice that will help you drive your organization to continued success?