Get the board to say ‘Yes!’

It is important to make communications to the board simple and smart

As the competition increases, a sales rep finds it tough to reach his sales targets, affecting his monthly income. Not achieving sales targets by more sales reps is reflected in the drop in shelf space and later in the market share. Reducing market share and the volumes affect the business plan of the company, thus promises made to the lending institutions, to suppliers, shareholders, etc. Sometimes this can affect the planned strategic initiatives of the enterprise as well.

When the head of marketing (CMO) meets the board, it is important that he or she has approached the issue from all these aspects. Usually, the stance by CMOs is one of defence. They tend to justify the results in spite of all the hard work by the team. Yet it remains an explanation, but not the solution the board expects. Many forget this reality. A CMO can be a part of the problem, an expert on the problem or part of the solution.

One becomes part of the problem when trying to defend results and give excuses and blame on all what the competitors have done. The expert of the problem has all the information about the competitive situation, how they manage the entire marketing mix, the impact the challenge has posed to different aspects of the business, etc. However, the CMO who is a part of a solution comes to the board with a solution. 

His or her stance could be: “This is the recent results and we have lost x% of market share. The main reasons for us losing the market share are the following… (list them in point form). The impact of the loss of the market share during the period under review in financial terms is XYZ. From the strategic point of view, they can be ABC, etc. In the medium term these are the consequences, financial and non-financial. In order to gain the market share back, and to grow there onwards following are the tactical steps proposed, and the financial implications are as follows. The long-term strategic response should be these.”

The CMO should frame this entirely in to a single PPT slide or a Single A4 Page but have all the supporting information either as annexures to the main board paper or as links to the ppt slides or as records in hand to present if asked.

Without taking this strategic approach when a CMO tries to bring up micro issues and details, the board also get distracted and the CMO also gets exposed unnecessarily when the required information is not being readily available to respond to probing questions from board members based on some micro level information. 

It is important to make communications to the board simple and smart. When the management has a whole month or a quarter to experience an issue, weeks to prepare the document to the board a board member especially a non-executive board member will have only a few hours to read the board papers. It is important that senior managers appreciate the point of view of the board when preparing presentations and papers. 

Before submitting board papers, it is very important to ask the question as to the purpose or the objective of the board paper. Some of them could be the following:

1.To get a decision, for the authority is not with the management

2.To receive direction of the board before allocating resources

3.To keep the board informed 

4. To be in line with the governance requirements.

As in any good piece of communication, the fundamental questions the managers should ask when planning communications with the board the basics, i.e. Who is my Target Audience? How do they process information? What is the desired response I need? In order to get that response, what should I say and more importantly how should I say. Reflecting on these basic questions will help Senior Managers communicate effectively with the board.

(Deepal Sooriyaarachchi is a Management Consultant and an Accredited Master Coach and Mentor with over four decades of industry experience, and more than 15 years of that at leading boards as a director. He can be contacted by [email protected].)