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If you're like many CEOs, your idea of a good board of directors candidate is the no-nonsense, battle-hardened executive you see yourself one day becoming. That's fine, but to judge by Joe Crugnale's experience, maybe you should check out ivory-tower intellectuals, too. An out-of-the-mainstream professor may have a wonderful view of your business's marketplace.

Two years ago Crugnale, CEO of Bertucci's and Bailey's, two small regional restaurant chains, recruited Bert Mendelsohn, a professor of marketing at Boston College who specializes in tracking small food-service chains.

"His classes do all my market research and provide me with a lot of information on the competition," says Crugnale. First hired as a consultant, Mendelsohn immediately helped Crugnale with the nuts and bolts: understanding an operating statement, and determining the ratios needed to make his restaurants more competitive.

In short order, Mendelsohn was elected to the board to help plan long-term strategy. For someone like Crugnale, who runs his business primarily by intuition, the mercilessly logical approach of an academic can serve as an effective counterbalance.