Page 116 - 25148.pdf

104 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

probably tried to eliminate these weaknesses, and indeed probably convinced your
boss that you had. But they remain your weaker areas. Everyone has varyingdegrees
of skill and competence in certain aspects of their business and indeed personal lives
and what you are good and bad at is blatantly obvious to your colleagues.

So, don't cover it up. Surround yourself with people with complementary skill
sets and encourage them to be as honest as you and to be confident in the things
they do well.

Idea 60 - Give your non-executive directors
huge credence

You will choose your non-executive directors for something that they bring to the
party. It may be contacts, market knowledge, industry experience or whatever; but
it is new to this boardroom. Now get it clear 'What does the board need?' and make
sure that the non-exec is clear about their contribution. Then listen to them.

If they are experienced directors amongst less experienced colleagues, then do
not just listen to what they say about the particular area you brought them in for,
but listen to them as well on anything to do with the responsibilities and roles of the
board. You are learning these and making them up as you go along. They actually
know what works.

I once had a great row with a non-executive director who was immensely expe-
rienced at board level having worked with a venture capital firm as a non-exec for
several of their investments. The problem was 'cost of sales' in a consultancy-ori-
ented company. He wanted monthly information on cost of sales. That is, he wanted
to know what the consultants and materials we had supplied that month had actu-
ally cost. I insisted that the consultants were in any case part of the fixed costs, and
that it was therefore a waste of time to keep that cost of sales information. It's
embarrassing to write it down now, it being so obvious that he was right, but I did
sort of have a point. In the end we listened to him, or rather I was forced by the chief