My brain is officially full. And I would imagine yours is too. With board work, client projects and interviews for new board roles, I have trouble keeping all the details straight.
How many stores sell our product? How has our SKU count trended in recent years? How does gross margin compare across product categories? Which strategic initiatives are expected to launch this quarter?
If you serve on a corporate board today, you likely receive at least 200 pages of financial results, board policy and management commentary each quarter. You are responsible for understanding all of it and retaining key pieces for future use.
If you serve on three or four boards, you could find yourself swimming in more than 3,000 pages of reading each year. Even with an online board portal managing your documents, searching for a specific data point can be a major time sink.
Fortunately, I don’t have to rely on rapid recall to surface much of this information. I use a simple spreadsheet that I developed to help me keep my story straight. Referring to the pre-read materials that management prepares for each board meeting, it takes just a few minutes each quarter to maintain.
With a copy of the spreadsheet in hand (click here), you’ll have a summary of the key information every director should have at their fingertips.
Organization-wide Financials
Directors need an informed view of corporate profitability drivers, beginning with a 4-year history of revenue, gross margin, operating expenses and capital expenditures. You can stay on top of the bottom line with a similar history of net income and EBITDA.
Next, I recommend identifying key strategic assets for the particular company at hand. For example, a retailer will describe the scope and complexity of the organization in terms of inventory on hand, the number of stores or square footage, and the number of employees.
Brand health is also critical. The organizations I work with often measure customers’ willingness to recommend the company to a friend (AKA Net Promoter Score) and awareness. Over time, you’ll assemble your own list of assets that drive the business.
Quantitative Snapshot of Key Product Lines and Distribution Channels
With the organization-wide view in hand, I remind myself of how an organization’s products and channels stack up in terms of range of product offer, sales, and inventory. Depending on your organization, you might look at the depth of the customer base or investments driving new product development.
These sections often prompt short commentary on what is driving trends. I also jot down follow-up questions that I might raise during future board meetings.
Summary of Key Strategic Themes
Management teams often speak as if every director has been living and breathing company strategy since the last board meeting. I’d rather not ask a CEO to refresh my memory on a previously discussed initiative. To avoid leaving the impression that I wasn’t listening when we first approved the project, I need help.
To keep my stories straight, I refer to a list of strategic initiatives, grouped into themes. Each initiative has a KPI or two and a note on project timing. You might consider drawing up an activity map, a diagram that helps me (but makes most of my colleagues roll their eyes at my consultant ways).
Prior to each board meeting, I review and update these pages while studying the pre-read materials. My updated spreadsheet, coupled with the minutes of the most recent meeting, positions me to pick up right where the last board meeting left off.
Question: What information do you like to keep at your fingertips? What else should every director have within easy reach? I would love to hear your thoughts via Twitter.
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