The Savvy Director Blog

For me, reading and learning about artificial intelligence (AI) has been like drinking from a firehose. I could choose to ignore it and get a nice glass of water from the filtered jug in my fridge. But that wouldn’t end well.

Instead, I’ve been learning that boards today aren’t yet seeing AI as an important education topic for their meetings or board retreats. There’s some curiosity around ChatGPT, but otherwise little sense of urgency. In my view, that’s a mistake.

Does it get your attenti...

Businesses naturally progress through different stages as they grow and mature. So do non-profit organizations. Their boards of directors need to change along with them, otherwise there’ll be a serious mismatch between what an organization needs from its board, and what the board can actually deliver.

As a board moves through these stages over time, it requires a changing set of attributes and competencies from its members. As a director, you’ll be more engaged and more satisfied, and you’ll ...

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Today’s post is by David Jaworski, Principal Product Manager for Microsoft Teams and co-founder of DirectorPrep. Dave serves on the board of INEO Solutions (TSXV: INEO) as well as non-profit boards. He previously served on the Advisory Board of Payworks and the public board of PNI Digital Media which was acquired by Staples. [email protected] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/DaveJaworski

Thanks to ChatGPT for also contributin...

 

You may find the term “business model” thrown around in the boardroom.

In this Savvy Director article, we’ll explore what it means, how it differs from strategy, and what the board’s role is, and what directors need to know to fulfill their role with respect to the organization’s business model.

And if the board you serve is in the non-profit sector, not to worry. There’s plenty here for you as well.

What is a business model?

The term business model is one of those things people recogn...

Would you agree that staying on top of technology developments shouldn’t be left to the one tech-fluent director on your board?

Just as it’s no longer acceptable to defer all the responsibility for understanding the financial statements to the accountant on the board, I feel that keeping up with the techies has to become a shared responsibility for all board directors.

It’s pretty clear to me that all directors need to have their heads in the tech game – at least well enough to know the scor...

Recently we re-published an earlier blog post, “What do I need to know about risk?” and shared The Savvy Director Guide to Risk with our subscribers as well as our network on LinkedIn.

Of course, there’s no way that a single blog post can cover the full breadth of a complex topic like risk. After all, there are entire books and courses of study devoted to the subject. Comments from some of our Savvy Director readers gave us great ideas for a follow-up blog on the topic.

Many thanks to those ...

Inflation...

Someone on LinkedIn said, “Good governance is like keeping the train on track.” I like that analogy as it runs parallel to the description of the CEO who ‘keeps the trains running on time.’

You need both ─ good direction and good execution.

You also need the third phase of the board’s work – monitoring progress.

It may have been John and Miriam Carver who described the work of the board as:

1. Setting direction,
2. Delegating authority, and
3. Monitoring progress.

In over twenty years workin...

How should a board of directors be spending its time and energy? When I serve on boards, I make sure there is plenty of room on our agendas to regularly spend time on four key topics: finance, people, strategy, and risk. I refer to these collectively as The Savvy Director’s Focus.

Board directors don’t need to be experts in these areas, but we should all have at least a basic understanding of them. And so, today’s blog focuses on what a board director needs to know about risk.

For many of ...