New VC-InsideOut Podcast: Best Practices for Building High-Performance Boards During Challenging Times
We have some engaging and topical new content on our VC-InsideOut podcast program– Episode 7 in our Governance Series, "Best Practices for the High-Performance Board". This is a first for VC InsideOut as we recorded a live, 92 minute program at the Pillsbury Winthrop law firm this past Thursday morning.
Allison Leopold Tilley, Danial Faizullabhoy, Chris Rust, Pascal Levensohn
The panel consisted of Chris Rust, General Partner of US Venture Partners, who sits on the board of Akros Silicon with me, Danial Faizullabhoy, CEO of Broadlogic, which is one of the Levensohn Venture Partners portfolio companies, and Allison Leopold Tilley, who has worked as outside counsel to an LVP company as far back as 1997. We had an engaging and candid conversation, which included fielding questions from audience members including Laurie Yoler, Managing Director of GrowthPoint Technology Partners. The perspectives from our panelists were all the more rich because Chris is a former CEO who is now a venture capitalist, and Danial is a former venture capitalist who is now a CEO.
Some of the highlights, from my perspective, were our discussion of common board conflicts given the very different perspectives of venture capitalists from CEO's– specifically, VC's cite "Personality Conflicts" as the most common conflicts on venture boards, whereas CEO's point to "Valuations" and don't even recognize Personality Conflicts as a category.
We reviewed director legal responsibilities and fiduciary duties and noted some common board misalignments:
SOME COMMON EXAMPLES OF BOARD MISALIGNMENT
Economic
–In VC backed companies, different preferences can make for strange alliances
Fiduciary
–Violations
of fiduciary duty
of fiduciary duty
Strategic
–How
do you spell independent?
do you spell independent?
Ego
–Too
often emotion clouds decision making
often emotion clouds decision making
We closed the session commenting on current events and best practices to achieve board alignment during the current crisis, especially given the high probability of fragmented co-investor syndicates in venture companies and the real-time significant revisions of operating plans for 2009 that many companies are experiencing:
BEST BOARD PRACTICES DURING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
•Process,
process, process…
process, process…
•Ask, and answer,
the hard questions early
the hard questions early
•Be realistic
about your operating forecasts and be prepared to revise them – up or down
about your operating forecasts and be prepared to revise them – up or down
•Put yourself in
the other directors’ shoes
the other directors’ shoes
•Be open to
working with outside consultants to address team and other management issues
working with outside consultants to address team and other management issues
•Be creative when
considering solutions
considering solutions
•The sky is not
falling– don’t panic yourself into a self-fulfilling downward spiral!
falling– don’t panic yourself into a self-fulfilling downward spiral!
Related posts:
- Building a High Performance Board and the Duty of Care
- Introducing the VC-InsideOut Podcast Program
- Levensohn Venture Partners Launches VC-InsideOut Podcast Program at WWW.VC-IO.COM
- Best Practices for VC Directors Involved in M&A Transactions in Today’s Challenging Environment
- Setting High Standards for Exemplary Boards
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About Pascal
I am a venture capitalist focused on investing in Security, Cleantech, and Digital Media. I have a strong interest in public policy issues and advocate public-private collaboration to protect our nation's critical infrastructure.
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November 4th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Do you think that Obama is going to win because the Republicans have such a bad candidate?
Why did John McCain make his final argument against Obama… coal?
That’s his closing argument? William Ayers, Rev. Wright, spreading the wealth, Born Alive, meeting dictators without preconditions, etc. all have to take a back seat so that McCain can go to Colorado and New Mexico to talk about coal? Does this more or less explain why he’s going to get his clock cleaned Tuesday?
November 6th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Каждый из Вас в силах помочь детям!
Each of you to help with forces to children!
Jede von Ihnen in den Kraften, den Kindern zu helfen!
Chacun de vous dans les forces a aider les enfants!
Cada uno Ud en las fuerzas ayudar a los ninos!
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