A Good Board Can Add Value to Your Business

Every business owner wants to be successful. They work long and hard to create products and services, find customers and develop new markets.

The owner of a business provides leadership and part of good leadership is to develop a team of people with the right mix of skills to make the business successful.

One way to build a strong team is through the board of the company, as a high-performing board will add significant value to any organisation.

Once a board is in place it is important to clarify its role and the role of the chairperson, directors and senior management.

The initial tasks of the board are to agree the vision, mission and values of the organisation that, in turn, serve to create its culture and ethos.

The board will agree the strategic direction and structure of the organisation and develop financial and risk management control systems.

In more recent years, corporate governance is seen as a way to improve board and business performance and manage in a competitive and challenging environment.

Traditionally, corporate governance has been associated with large organisations and some times seen as bureaucratic and unnecessarily burdensome.

But given its renewed role of capturing and implementing best practice to add value to the organisation, it is increasingly relevant to small businesses; not least in the current economic climate.

Similarly, independent directors have been associated with large organisations but are increasingly seen as beneficial to smaller companies, as they provide a different and, at times, more balanced perspective.

In family-owned businesses, not least because of greater complexity and family politics, tangible benefits can come from a board, advisory board or the appointment of non-executive directors, as they can help to address succession planning and improve the long-term success of the business.

One of the key lessons of the current recession is the need for all businesses to make good short-term and long-term decisions that withstand market uncertainty and to this end the value and contribution of a good board has been proven.

S0, regardless of the size of your company the development of an effective board will improve performance and add significant value to the business.

What do you think? Does your board add value? Get in touch, we would love to hear your views contact Nick on 028 8224 9494 or via Twitter @nick_oec.