8 quick tips to ensure a successful board presentation

Presenting to a board is high-risk – get it right & you may well be earmarked for greater things but get it wrong & the future could be less favourable!

I’ve sat on a few boards, so here’s my advice;

-       Remember everyone in the room is equal or at least should be. Each board member is independant & they will argue with each other and with you. This can be a shock at first as you see your CEO being answered back but it’s all part of reaching a majority through discussion.

-       Make sure your topic is relevant. There’s nothing worse than a board agenda point that doesn’t need to be there. Board meetings are all about getting actions agreed, so when something comes up that doesn’t need the board to be acted on, you will be tainted with the ‘time waster’ brush.

-       Do your research on how the board meetings are run – very strict & on agenda via the chair or more informal. Talk to the company secretary.

-       Never drop a question. If you want to come back to it to keep the flow going, then make sure it’s captured on a flip chart or on screen notes. It shows everyone that it’s not forgotten & they can focus on the next point.

-       Almost inevitably the board will start talking amongst themselves. When this happens try & involve them in your point or call a break & reset your point.

-       Don’t defend but instead try & persuade ie present all the facts & figures even if they highlight a potential weakness. Better to be in control of this than have someone pull your presentation apart.

-       My personal favourite – always write a good briefing paper & circulate it at least 3 days before the meeting. My experience is that many boards hate receiving anything new at the meeting. After all it’s very hard to create a convincing plan on the fly in the meeting!

Follow up! A thank you note, an offer to come back & look at anything that still needs work or to respond to specific questions & most importantly the minutes. ‘He who writes the minutes runs the company’ so make sure your actions & timings are correctly noted. Amend them if you feel they don’t fully capture what was agreed

Implementation leads to creativity

Yes I know that sounds the wrong way around but it’s worthwhile to stop & consider just how new ideas happen.  In my experience the best ideas rarely just appear perfectly formed.

Novelists for example naturally draw from their life experiences. Businesses on the other hand can often overlook the benefits that experience can bring to creativity.

By ‘doing’ the standard way of thinking can be broken & greater empathy achieved with the subject. Often it’s only by getting your hands dirty can you really begin to feel what it’s like to experience a product or service. From experience springs ideas & creativity.

So next time you are looking for some specialist outside help to grow your business, ask if they would like to spend some time making your product or serving your customers. The good ones will jump at the chance!

Had enough of workshops, scenario planning, strategy, brainstorms & white boards?

Unlike the hackneyed financial phrase ‘past performance can be an indication of future results’. Strategic planning is tricky, it involves guesswork, an uncertain future, risk analysis. A review however is much easier. It’s all done & dusted & you can unearth a very useful list of lessons from your past successes & failures.

This is especially true if you have been running on ‘repeat’ for a few years and haven’t stopped to explore your boundaries or you are in the very early stages of your business. You can still use the core elements of planning in a strategic review but just apply the benefit of hindsight.

There are six recognised steps to planning & these can just as successfully be used for a strategic review;

1. Vision
2. Goals
3. Strategies
4. Financials
5. Actions
6. Review

Vision

Starting on 1^st January 2011 ask yourself ‘what did I accomplish?’ What happened? What economic value did you create?

Goals

What goals did you achieve over the past 12 months? At the very least understand your key performance indicators such as revenue, cost of sales, profit (gross and net) & cashflow. For many however KPI’s stop there. It’s all about cashflow surely?  Well yes if you just want to pay for your lifestyle. If you want to exit at some point with wealth, then start to better understand your balance sheet. If in doubt ask your accountant or financial expert to explain liquidity, gearing, ageing of debtor/creditors and return on assets.

Strategies

We all get tangled up in ‘Strategies’ but a good start point is to review your business model. It’s a key element of any business strategy. Get the model right & you turn an idea into cash.

If model isn’t working don’t just throw it away. Make sure how you’ve been executing the model isn’t the problem. It may just need some tweaking.

We are closing in on Christmas, a great time to review your year ready for a fresh start in 2012. Take time out with family & friends, relax & you will find that the findings from your review will make you more aware of the factors running your business.

You will come back in January refreshed & ready to start planning & acting on how to grow your business.