Blog | BoardPro | Beautifully Functioning Boards

Board Members Need to Lead the Way

For organisations to thrive it is important for board members to clearly articulate expectations to management with a shared lexicon on what success constitutes. The boards role is to at minimum sign off on strategy. It is management’s role to buy into the agreed strategy and then execute.Here are four areas that board members will want to ensure are in place to avoid ankle tapping performance.

4 Tips for Chairing in a High Functioning Board

The performance of the Chair is often central to the success of a business. The Chair summons the collective board thinking of the board. The board works with the CE and signs off on the strategy. The board monitors and supports the CEO and management as it executes that strategy and maintains health of the business throughout the year. The Chair is the conductor and coach to solicit the optimal performance from the orchestra.

Kiwi tech company BoardPro scores NZ Rugby deal

Auckland-based BoardPro has won a contract with NZ Rugby that will see 26 provincial unions, five Super Rugby franchises and the NZ Maori Rugby Board adopt its boardroom governance software.BoardPro founder and chief executive Brett Herkt often puts his company in the same frame as Diligent Board Member Services when discussing customer numbers – Diligent being the NZX-listed company in the same market that had a storied $1 billion sale to a New York-based private equity outfit.

From Good to Great as a Board Member

A chairman I know recently tabled the following advice from the IoD to set the tone for refreshinga board.“A board that truly adds value is not just a group of high performing individuals. A good board is a balanced team with complementary skill sets and a culture that allows them to work together to make the most effective decisions for an Organisation. While the leadership from the chair is crucial, it is the full participation of every board member that contributes the most to the effectiveness of the board.”

Avoiding the CEO Dominating the Board

What happens when the executive leader overreaches into the domain of the board? E.g. when the CEO is pushy or obstructive where the directors feel they are not being heard. Here are signs of board capture, tips on what to do if this is the case, and advice on how to avoid it happening in the first instance.

The Argument for Board Software

Online tools focused on organisational governance work have grown dramatically in the last 5 years. This category is known as “board software or board portals”(the terms are interchangeable). Board Software enables board directors and key staff members to create agendas, take minutes, access digital governance documents, and attend to post meeting tasks for their board or committee meetings.

How to Run an Effective Board Meeting

Senior executives and governors are busy people by nature. As the adage goes ‘if you want something done – give it to a busy person’. However, there are ways to make this easier for everyone and having a strong board meeting process is central to that.

How Often and For How Long Should Our Board Meet?

The ideal frequency and duration of board meetings is a vexing question. The answer depends on a combination of the maturity of the Organisation, the level of change in the business / market, and the confidence within the governance team to ‘steer the waka’ forward at and between board meetings.

Why Board Only Sessions Should Be Embraced, Not Feared

There is a school of thought that states that the only real job of the board is to determine whether to grant the CEO an extension of their tenure to the next meeting. In reality boards, and their board only sessions more often traverse the performance of the board and how it may better help the CEO and their executive team make the waka (ship) go faster.

A Guide to More Productive Board Meetings

Over the years we’ve had many ongoing conversations with people about board governance. What we have learnt is that productive board meetings are those that are ‘front loaded’ i.e are directly proportional to the front work in the agenda and the preparation of supporting documents. The success of board meetings are also much more likely with strong support processes. That said, they are still dependant on strong executive-director/board relationships, good attitudes and conduct during the meeting.

Nine Steps to Effective Governance

Governance excellence is tough, our board members face difficulties balancing this while creating positive teamwork despite the disparate demands inherent in their organisations. Best governance practices do evolve and by applying a principled framework, boards are better equipped to face this changing world.

7 Ways to Fine-Tune the CEO’s Board Report

In many cases, directors and executives are dissatisfied with the outcome of board meetings. In many such cases ‘the board seems disconnected from their core function.’Too often, boards that centre their meetings around the CEO report suffer this problem. Whilst it’s a given that chief executives report to their boards, the way it’s done is equally important. Below are some of the issues that arise in situations where the CEO report dominates or distracts the board meeting.

How to Avoid Getting Your Ear Chewed Off!

Want to avoid getting your ear chewed off?We’ve all been in board meetings where someone, usually the CEO gets their ear chewed off. Why does it happen and how can you avoid it?

How should a Chief Executive Report to the Board

Many chief executives complain about their boards. They use terms like ‘meddling’ and ‘crossing the line’. They also lament that their boards spend too much time in the detail and are not strategic enough. Whether you like it or not, you’re unlikely to be able to change your board, but rather, your board can change you! In the end, the best way to manage and impact the board dynamics is to succeed in your role.

Board Minutes: the FAQs

We’re answering eight of the most frequently asked questions about taking minutes in board meetingsWhat are Board Meeting Minutes?Board meeting minutes are more than a general accounting of board discussions; they serve as an official and legal record of the meeting of theBoard of Directors. Minutes are used in a variety of ways including tracking progress, detailing future plans, and serving as a reference point.

What is Board Management Software and How Much Does it Cost?

Board management software helps boards and their management teams manage the board’s needs more efficiently and securely than with generic tools such as email, word documents, spreadsheets and dropbox.

A Guide to Board Minute Taking

Minute taking – so what’s the problem? Minute taking can be cumbersome and painful. BoardPro’s polling of governance pain points over the past three years shows that over 76% of respondents rated ‘minute taking’ as a significant pain point.“76% of respondents rated ‘minute taking’ as a significant pain point”

7 Ways to Avoid Mainzeal Mistakes

The role of a director is not simply to rely on the auditors’ figures without questions or separate assessment” The Case:The High Court recently released a much-anticipated decision on directors’ liability in relation to the collapse of construction firm Mainzeal.

NZ Herald: BoardPro's Path to World Domination

The sale of NZX-listed Diligent to a US company for a fraction under $1 billion in 2016 is one of the most storied exits in New Zealand software history.Now, a start-up that’s in the same market – boardroom governance software – says it’s about to overtake Diligent, at least by one measure.

What’s eating SME and Non-profit boards?

Anyone who’s has worked or governed at both ends of the corporate spectrum, understands how the needs of small to medium enterprise (SME) and non-profits differ dramatically to those in to the corporate sector. Someone who’s become an expert in this area is Brett Herkt. Starting professional life with Ernst & Young and later working for a major UK bank, he says “I was a small cog in huge process driven wheels at the big end of town”. Then in a diametrically opposed change he became the CFO of a high-tech start-up, where just having cash to make payroll was a job item. During this wild ride, he became CEO and although he successfully grew it 400% to 50 staff, $14m annual revenues and 7-figure profitability, a disagreement between him and the board saw him exit. “The board didn’t understand effective management process in the context of a start-up and nor did I”, says Herkt.

Taking The Pain Out of Checking Past Discussions

Whether you’re a board member, CEO or administrator, you’ve undoubtedly run into this bugbear: A critical decision has come due and you want to refer to past discussions on the topic. You vaguely recall it was a bit contentious but your memory is a bit hazy and you can’t speak with any confidence on what was previously said. Where is that information? Where do you even start looking? It could be in the minutes of any number of meetings, it could be sitting in a supplementary paper… In all honesty, you don’t know where to begin!‘Lost’ discussions is a pain point we often hear about. Hours wasted manually searching for that elusive document: Dropbox, Google Drive, emails, paper copies you have had filed away… somewhere? It’s a painstaking process and often ends without joy, or if you do find the relevant minutes you’re lucky if there’s sufficient detail to know what really happened.Sadly, it looks like you’re going to be relitigating the argument all over again… Or are you? Here’s three steps for banishing the pain of searching for historical information.

3 Serial Killers of Board Meetings

Whether you’re a professional director on four boards or a volunteer making your first foray into governance on a small NFP board, you want to be given adequate time and resources to prepare well and contribute in board meetings. But that’s not always the case, is it? You’re aware of the pressures on the CEO and the Chair in preparing for and managing meetings, and you can certainly cut them some slack. However there’s some recurring issues that disrupt your ability to do your job well, which can be avoided with good practice. Here’s three that routinely disrupt board meetings.

Staying on Top of Every Board Discussion with BoardPro

Time is precious in a Board meeting. So many important discussions take place and you can’t remember them all. Sometimes, you’ll vaguely recall a discussion taking place but you don’t know when, nor what the outcome was. Other times, you’ll have no recollection at all – even though a fellow director is strongly indicating otherwise.

NZ Business Magazine - Software That Delivers Board Efficiency

If you sit on boards, or run your own board meetings, BoardPro is a cloud-based software platform designed to instantly produce greater efficiencies and better governance.Bruce Sheppard, who set up the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association, sits on multiple boards and uses BoardPro for five boards including BoardPro itself. “Instead of emails flying back and forth with attachments, now all information is in one place on the portal,” he says. His previous experience with board meetings was that they were often unproductive and lacked direction. “Typically a meeting would wander all over the show.

NBR - Why Governance Matters

The news out of one of New Zealand’s largest companies, Fletchers, points to problems with governance and oversight delivered by the board but it’s not just corporates that suffer from this. Small businesses also need to carefully consider how they’re going to manage governance if they’re to grow and prosper.

Radio New Zealand

Radio NZ interview CEO, Brett Herkt on BoardPro’s early wins and the product’s international prospects. Pick up the conversation at 4:00 minutes on this audio link.

Don't be a dick!

It’s not difficult to look like a dick at board meetings. In fact, looking back at the countless board meetings I’ve attended, it’s remarkably easy and happens all the time. It’s simple: just fail to do your action items from the last board meeting. How many times have you found yourself looking at the week ahead and realized you haven’t done all of those things you breezily agreed to at the last meeting? Contact an SEO company for a quote? Dig out that company contact from your address book? Review those papers the CEO presented and come back with a detailed analysis? Child’s play, you said. Put me down for those and more!

Why managers are falling in love with board software

You’d think that the last thing a time poor manager or administrator would want is another piece of software! And especially not for something as delicate and important as the board process.Surely the flexibility and familiarity of generic tools like email, microsoft word and dropbox are better. It turns out that an integrated and structured tool (like BoardPro) outperforms desktop solutions. Here’s 4 reasons why:

3 reasons why boards are buying BoardPro

You and your fellow board members are busy, we get it. That’s why we’ve built features into BoardPro that make your lives easier. Plus the savings on the organisation’s administration time and resources mean the software pays for itself.

BoardPro launches, positioning itself as the Diligent for SMEs

An Auckland-based governance software startup says it wants to be like Diligent but for SMEs. BoardPro has just wrapped up a pilot involving 30 companies (28 in NZ and two in Australia) and launched last night…

BoardPro officially launching to help SME and not-for-profit boards

A new platform designed to improve the way boards of small businesses and not-for-profits operate is launching.BoardPro is officially launching on February 1 after doing a soft launch in July last year.

Software cuts board meeting costs

When anyone talks about services that save people time and money, my ears prick up. So when I met Brett Herkt of BoardPro recently, I was most interested to hear about the software he and his company have designed. It’s a cloud-based governance tool for small, medium and non-profit boards and fills a big gap in the market.

Possible Steps in a Structured Decision Process

Companies of all sizes have different processes for making board decisions. The article is intended for those critical decisions that require much deeper thought and consideration.

Is Board Software Right For My Company?

In this independent article Ruth Medd explains how a telephone survey resulted in her joining an Advisory Board and reviews three online and board management products - timely given COVID-19 necessitates boards to operate "virtually".

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Is Board Software Right For My Company?

Inside Story - How to report to your Board during a Crisis + FREE Template

Board Meetings by Video Conference

Improving the Board decision making process

Why Your Board Needs An ‘Annual Work Plan’ - FREE Template

Managing the Board’s Expectations

Top Tips for managing the board meeting cycle

Writing a CEO Report That Delights Your Board + FREE Template

Try BoardPro free for 30 days

Board Members Need to Lead the Way

4 Tips for Chairing in a High Functioning Board

Kiwi tech company BoardPro scores NZ Rugby deal

From Good to Great as a Board Member

Avoiding the CEO Dominating the Board

The Argument for Board Software

How to Run an Effective Board Meeting

How Often and For How Long Should Our Board Meet?

Why Board Only Sessions Should Be Embraced, Not Feared

A Guide to More Productive Board Meetings

Nine Steps to Effective Governance

7 Ways to Fine-Tune the CEO’s Board Report

How to Avoid Getting Your Ear Chewed Off!

How should a Chief Executive Report to the Board

Board Minutes: the FAQs

What is Board Management Software and How Much Does it Cost?

A Guide to Board Minute Taking

7 Ways to Avoid Mainzeal Mistakes

NZ Herald: BoardPro's Path to World Domination

What’s eating SME and Non-profit boards?

Taking The Pain Out of Checking Past Discussions

3 Serial Killers of Board Meetings

Staying on Top of Every Board Discussion with BoardPro

NZ Business Magazine - Software That Delivers Board Efficiency

NBR - Why Governance Matters

Radio New Zealand

Don't be a dick!

Why managers are falling in love with board software

3 reasons why boards are buying BoardPro

BoardPro launches, positioning itself as the Diligent for SMEs

BoardPro officially launching to help SME and not-for-profit boards

Software cuts board meeting costs

Possible Steps in a Structured Decision Process

Is Board Software Right For My Company?

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