What do I mean by
Advisory Board?
Whether you just have started a business, or you’ve been around for several years…
Whether you are part of a small company or a large corporation…
You always come around with the need to make choices and decisions, or the need for
creating clarity and alignment on strategic direction and priorities founded in business realities
solving specific problems now and putting the solution into action
translating strategies into real change in operating model, organization and individual behavior with clear accountability and follow through
accelerating commercial development through clear and actionable segmentation and stronger value proposition
understanding the nature and discipline of change execution – driving actual long term change and making it stick
That is the time of life as a Manager you often look for unbiased experienced peoples to discuss with.
That is why we decided to establish…
…The Advisory Board…
…which is there to be your preferred discussion partner, independent of level you are on in the organization and whether it is of a…
…Strategic or an Operational level
My network of 20+ top players with their individual and specialized area to be engaged together with myself has made it possible to create the discussion partner.
To be a discussion partner for any Management Team, any Manager or any Specialist
– that is my Advisory Board –
made available to you and your company.
I wish an Advisory Board was available when I started as CEO for the Fund Management Company in the Storebrand Group in Norway. A real challenge for anyone at the age of 40 in a high-end company. And, everyone is not as lucky as I was to have good mentors and coaches that want you to succeed inside the Group. I had that.
So, how does it work?
It all starts with
YOU
by submitting me an invitation here or contact me here. After that anything can happen.
After a free-of-charge 30 minutes session where you and whoever you invite go through your situation and potential challenges, we will together discuss if I can be of any help and potentially involve anyone in my network (that can also be done later).
Scope and Meeting frequency is agreed, and we take it from there. I am there to be your discussion partner and to set up a fixed agreement is not viable in this context.
In most cases these talks are all done using Zoom where I will take care of the administration and invitations. In some cases it can also be the best solution to have meetings on-site but to save time and money and be as effective as possible, the cloud is preferably used.
And that’s it!
What's in it for you ?
All Corporations are obliged to have a Board of Directors and for many that can be a challenge, both process of handling it as well as discussions in it. But most Corporations need guidance, a 2nd opinion and in some cases also corrections. An Advisory Board might therefore be a good idea – a forum where you have a handful of competent non-biased persons where one can look for advice without the peculiarities sometimes part of a Board of Directors.
If you are uncertain on whether or not to have a Board of Directors, an Advisory Board could be a good idea to test out as a pathfinder to finally set the right scope for the Board of Directors.
So, what is the real difference between an Advisory Board and a true Board of Directors? Isn’t it in fact two forums with different names?
An Advisory Board is optional whilst a Board of Directors in some cases is needed due to legislation.
An Advisory Board can have but not necessarily, a commitment towards the Corporation.
An Advisory Board gives – as the name itself indicate, advice. Whilst a Board of Directors has the necessary authorities and governance to bypass decisions made by the CEO.
An Advisory Board consist of members with no legal responsibility.
An Advisory Board is often discussed in the terms of a Low-level Board of Directors as opposed to the real Board of Directors on the High-level.
An Advisory Board and A Board of Directors often have different fee structure.
Consequently, should you choose an Advisory Board or a true Board of Directors?
First, have in mind your Advisory Board can also be a Board of Directors with the same persons but different authority and different role. Can often be a good idea as long as the capability to distinguish between the roles is present
Whether it is an Advisory Board or a Board of Directors, the true difference comes down to the persons you have selected. A group of people with no commitment and engagement have no value in either of the settings whilst a committed person is valuable wherever he/she is
An external discussion partner is essential when it all comes down to strategic questions, business plan, business model, growth strategy (or not), M&A, HR and a lot more topics. An Advisory Board could definitely be the solution in these cases.
A good guideline can be to use Advisory Board for
– SMB Corporations and/or newly established companies
– project/program related parts of the Corporation for example implementing new markets, new lines of business, new technology, migrations, branding etc
– where the owners want to have a seat in the Board of Directors, an Advisory Board can be a perfect solution to ensure external discussion partners
Another generic guideline is that whenever you have “something in the pipeline” the Corporation often will benefit from External competence and External input
Process & Compensation
One of the fiercest debates around The Advisory Board is around compensation. While professional advisors suggest rates in tens of thousands per meeting and/or decent equity upside, entrepreneurs and retirees looking to “pay it forward” or “no result – no pay” often insist a cup of coffee is adequate. Like most things in life, the truth and our solution lie somewhere in the middle.
All prices are exclusive of VAT and preconditioned that the sessions can be conducted using our Zoom account or Teams. If the session or part of the session is to be conducted on site, travel expenses will be added as well as travel time exceeding 1 hour at a rate of €200 per person/hour.
Furthermore, to finalise the transparency we strive to achieve the fee structure for the specialists to a bit different. They are paid by us and the cost for them is inclusive in the session costs. A majority of the specialists are employed somewhere else and have their own personal business in addition to cover their work as independent consultants. In some cases they want to use the fee to sponsor an organisation of their own choice which we then will take care of on their behalf.
Step 1 – Identify your needs
A 30-minute session with only me from our side where you freely can go through your need and goals. In essence it is your 30 minutes and you can spend them the time you prefer. This session is FREE.
Either in the final part of the session or immediately after I will let you know if I think we might be of value to you and then we all take it from there.Step 2 – Planning and Scoping
The second step will be to set up a plan to identify more in details, what goals to achieve and what needs are present to discuss with the Advisory Board. The more specific, the better—a measurable strategic outcome is ideal. Time and expense of organising the Advisory Board is a session of 1 hour. Attendees from our side will be determined after Step 1.
Pricing is set depending on who to attend from our side and agreed.
Step 3 – Advisory Board, Live
The third and final step is an iterative step of Advisory Board meetings. Iterative because they will continue until the company/person decide that the goals are met or for any other reason want to stop the sessions. Each session is estimated at 2 hours with identified specialists involved.
Pricing is set depending on who to attend from our side and agreed.
Step 4 – Evaluation
After concluded the Advisory Board a precondition from our side is an evaluation session – a 30-minute session with only me from our side where you freely can go through your feedback to us.
This session is FREE (of course).
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