A few years ago I had an idea for a cover story that I thought would be clever to title “Governance on the Left Coast.” At the time I did not think of this idea as being one that would divine the secret sauce (if there was any) of Silicon Valley board governance, but perhaps unconsciously that was where my creative intent was heading.
This edition leads off with a variation of that idea. We found two authors deeply embedded in the Silicon Valley community and asked them to give the DIRECTORS & BOARDS audience a sense of the character of boards in this Left Coast technology hub. Ray Zinn, who has the distinction of being the longest-serving CEO of a publicly traded Silicon Valley company, addresses “Selecting Boards for the Long Term” (page 18), and Hap Klopp weighs in with how “Silicon Valley Boards Think and Act Differently” (page 21).
Even more years ago than the cogitation I did on the above idea, I gave a talk to a publishing trade organization on “How Not to Manage an Editorial Advisory Board.” As I was editing Ellen Frankenberg's article in this issue on “10 Excuses for Not Establishing a Board of Advisors” (page 27) it occurred to me that I might have something to add to this topic. So I dusted off my tip sheet, tweaked it for pertinence to advisory boards in general, and selected a few of my “don'ts” that might be helpful to those thinking of creating an advisory board or wanting to get more value out of one — a topic that I sense is growing in interest, hence the spotlight we give it in this issue. Here is what not to do:
• Don't just have an advisory board (AB) to dress up your corporate bona fides. If that is all you want from an AB I'm not sure it's going to yield any benefits.
• Don't think about what your needs are for membership on your AB. The classic tendency is to “get the person available”; instead, seek out those with knowledge you need and can draw from to advance your business.
• Don't have the AB members meet and get to know each other. In other words, do get the AB together once or twice a year (or even more, depending on your needs). One of the compelling attractions of being on a board is to get to know new people, to become part of someone else's network and to extend your networks to someone else. An AB is perfect for this.
• Don't ask your AB members to do anything. You know they are busy people too, so you may be reluctant to ask them to do something specific. Resist that inclination. People join boards because they want to make a useful contribution to the enterprise. That makes them feel good and important, so don't deny them that opportunity
I freely admit to making all of these mistakes (and all the ones I did not revisit here). But in this issue I did take my own advice and turned to two members of my advisory board for substantive articles: Norm Augustine pens a tribute to the management wit and wisdom of the late Yogi Berra (page 64); and Bob Dilenschneider offers a set of keen insights on “Age Is No Barrier to Success” (page 51). From each of these cited articles and all the other worthy advisories in this issue I hope you will find some secret sauce ingredients for your own board's excellence.