Advisory boards can be extremely beneficial for any type of company. If your business does not already have an advisory board, it’s certainly worth considering starting one in order to benefit from it. At Advisory Board Architects (ABA), we work with companies of all types, such as a privately-owned company. An advisory board can be beneficial for a publicly-owned company as well, though it’s a bit different than working with one that is privately-owned. Read on to learn more about how an advisory board can benefit a privately-owned company.
Greater benefits
Generally, advisory boards can have a greater impact for private companies than for public companies. There can be a variety of reasons for this difference, though an advisory board can be beneficial to either type of business. For public companies, the advisory board may have to spend significant time reporting to the board of directors as opposed to doing what they do best; helping the company thrive. For a privately-owned company, the board can be completely focused on forward looking strategic input and ways to improve the business. The less time wasted on bureaucratic details within the business, the better and more impactful the advisory board can be.
Focus
The main focus for advisory boards from ABA when it comes to working with private companies is to generate ROI and strategic outcomes for the business. This focus extends to both fiduciary and non-fiduciary boards. Advisory boards can work on generating strategic impact that can be quantified for the business.
Questions
Sometimes, private companies may have issues with how to best increase board engagement and understand just how the strategic impact of a board is quantifiable. There are many common questions that may arise such as:
- What is the best board structure for the company that will provide the optimal impact?
- How can a board consistently provide more impact?
- How can we best keep board meetings on task and provide benefits to the executive team?
- Should board members be compensated? If so, how?
These are just a few of the questions that a company may have as they start considering how to work with an advisory board. When working with a well-built advisory board, all of these questions can be successfully addressed and lead to a thriving organization.