Why You Need an Advisory Board
An outside perspective is critical to building the future of any business, big or small. Read more
Building a Board of Advisers
Recent Building a Board of Advisers Articles
My Worst & Best Board Meetings
Conflict can be helpful at an advisor meeting. What's more important? Disciplined use of time. The last article of a four-part series on boards. Read more
Boards: The Right Person To Lead One
The best chairman or chairwoman is a mentor, sounding board, and listener. Read more
Boards: What Makes A Strong Director?
What to look for when you choose board members. And what to avoid. The second of a four-part series. Read more
Boards: Why Bother With One?
A group of advisors can be extraordinarily useful. Tricks to make sure yours is. The first of a four-part series. Read more
How to Get The Most Out Of Your Advisors
It took ages to convince the right people to sit on your advisory board. So why aren't they helping? Read more
Lasso a Star Advisor for Your Start-up
As Meg Whitman joins Zaarly, an e-commerce start-up, the company's CEO offers advice on finding your company's next advisor, and why you might want to consid... Read more
Leonardo DiCaprio Invests in Photo-Sharing App
The actor led a $4 million seed round and joined the company's board of advisers. Read more
Would You Take Business Advice From a College Student?
Why Jen O’Neal, founder of Tripping, created an advisory board of young people Read more
The Cash Register Meets its App
The smartphone makes a significant lunge toward replacing your credit card. Plus, what if your product is too perfect, and the rest of the day's news. Read more
How to Build a Board of Directors
Haunted by nightmare board-meeting scenarios? Here's how to assemble the best advisers for your business. Read more
How to Assemble a Board of Advisers
How to set up a board of advisers to help you run your small business Read more
Smart Questions: How to Vet a Board Member
Here's what to ask to get the right person to join your board. Read more
Four Tips for Working with Board Search Firms
As boards increasingly become less an informal network of cronies and more a hardworking corporate resource, the search for new board members becomes incr... Read more
Reluctant Board Candidates: Friendly Persuasion
Every year, boardroom burdens increase, more board candidates find themselves "boarded up," and the average director tenure grows a bit shorter. As a resu... Read more
Board Evaluation: Liability Dangers?
Having a strong evaluation process for your board is so valuable and helpful in improving board quality that I almost hesitate to mention a potential down... Read more
Weeding Out Weak Board Members
Q: "I've recently taken over as CEO at our company, with a mandate for some restructuring and new initiatives. The board, however, co... Read more
Four Annual Meeting " Musts" For Your Board
It's annual meeting season and, once again, most companies will make poor use of their boards of directors. At a time when shareholders are feeling edgy, ... Read more
A Boardroom " Bill Of Rights"
You probably hear plenty about your duties and responsibilities as a corporate director. But what about your rights as a board member? Even good governanc... Read more
How Directors Can Help In A CEO Search
CEO turnover is increasing, and more companies are looking outside the firm to find new candidates who can turn things around. While these "external" sear... Read more
4 How-To Ideas For Global Directors
Though it's by no means a megatrend, the number of corporate boards adding international directors is steadily growing (even at smaller, hometown companie... Read more
Four Board Evaluation Problems - And Solutions
Corporate boards are figuring out that regular, pointed evaluation of themselves is vital to improving the job they do. But just because your board has ma... Read more
Hot Tip: The Smartest Phone Call A CEO Can Make
Bob Neuschel is a business professor at Northwestern University, and serves on many boards. He shares a gem of a CEO board communication tip that he finds... Read more
My Most Awkward Boardroom Moment
The board of directors is an expert body that engages in highly professional, serious deliberation -- except when it doesn't. The next time a foul-up in y... Read more
Take Advice for What It's Worth
It seems the minute you start a business, everyone gives you advice. Suddenly, your unemployed brother-in-law Sheldon, a failure at everything, is now a b... Read more
Four Ways a Board Can Help Manage a Merger
A fidgety economy is doing nothing to slow the tide of mergers and acquisitions, but it is making more and more of the last decade' s brilliant deals look... Read more
Board Searches: What's Hot in 2001?
The search for boardroom talent continues, with the stakes growing ever higher as we demand more time, effort and specific skills of our directors. Every ... Read more
Give Your Board a Style Audit
Every corporate board develops its own unique chemistry based on such factors as membership, leadership, company history, and power blocs. But is your boa... Read more
Hot Tip: Board Conflict Resolution
To paraphrase a business cliché, a board where everyone thinks alike is a board where no one is thinking. As boardroom risks have increased, so has board... Read more
A Boardroom Generation Gap
The booming digital economy of the last decade has spawned lots of twentysomething zillionaires. Though their stock options may not be as rich as they wer... Read more
Finding Diverse Candidates for Your Board
Q. Our company is a major presence in our community, but we recently settled a discrimination suit that has brought local attention t... Read more
Common Boardroom Blunders of Novices
No one likes to be the new kid on the block, especially since it offers so many ways to make a fool of yourself. The boardroom is an even trickier venue f... Read more
New Rules of Etiquette for Board Communication
In the good old days (and they' re still not so " old" at a lot of companies), all communication between the board members and company staff was funneled ... Read more
Board Building Tips from the 2000 Inc. 500 #1 Company
The Parson Group just came in at #1 on the 2000 Inc. 500 list ( see article ), and Pa... Read more
Five Tips for Savvy Board Travel Planning
First, let? s accept that corporate travel gets more and more frustrating hassle every year. Next, let? s acknowledge that arranging travel for board meet... Read more
