Jane recently attended Cranfield School of Management’s annual Leadership  Seminar, October 2010, where the theme was Leadership and the Boardroom.  Jane shares below her key learnings from the event.

 

Issues of the Boardroom in today’s environment – Patrick Dunne, Global Communications Director, 3G

 

o        Boardroom issues depend on your context.  What environment are you operating in?

o        Who else is on the board?  Who is calm and capable of dealing with the issues that come up?  Who has the personal resilience and integrity to weather the tough times as well as the good times?

o        The defining characteristic of an effective board member is ‘judgement’.  Using judgement on the people and commercial decisions.  For example, RBS Chief Executive bought ABN Amro for £95bn, 12 months later; he could have bought Goldmans, Deutsche, Merrill Lynch and Citibank for the same amount. Effective decision making based on judgement and timing.

o        Ensuring the balance sheet is shored up to respond to new opportunities.

o        Reviewing how boards spend their time.  Effective way is to have two agendas; 1) the information agenda to disseminate information and 2) the discussion agenda with one or two points for discussion such as strategy.  It is important to get the right agenda to get the most out of a board meeting.

o        Awareness of gobal mega trends such as climate change, population growth due to reach 9bn by 2050, energy and resource depletion, digital communications and global imbalances between demographics, poverty, conflict and health and the impact this has on your business.

o        CEOs need to be connected to society, to understand what their customers think.  It is important to listen to what they say and even more important to listen to what they think. 

o        Consider what is required from a regulatory perspective for example, if you have an international business; be familiar with the laws on international bribery.

o        Risk management; be aware of the risks and consequences and how to mitigate them.

o        Articulate the role of the board.  In Patrick Dunne’s experience it is to articulate the right strategy and implement it, ensure there is sufficient resources namely people and money and ensure the correct governance, keep themselves out of jail!

o        Develop strong self-awareness.  Be aware of your style.  How do you deal with conflict?  Thomas Kilman model of conflict suggests there are a possible of 5 responses based on a combination of our level of assertiveness and co-operation.  These include avoid, accommodate, compromise, compete and collaborate. What is your natural preference?

o        Boards need a balance; stop doing things that are ineffective and allow for creating capacity to do things of higher value.

 

Jane posed a question in the Q&A as to what were the attributes Patrick recognised to be key for those aspiring (generation X and Y) to join a Board?  Patrick’s insight and recommendations were:

o        Judgement – both in relation to people and the commercials

o        Interpersonal Skills with high emotional intelligence

o        Excellent antennae to scan the environment for threats and opportunities