Board meetings

I’ve had the pleasure of sitting on a few boards during my career and I have always accepted what a huge responsibility that is. I’ve also understood that when you sit as part of a board you are no longer merely a function head but part of a team charged with running a particular business and as such you need to forget the politics and a partisan desire to champion your function but rather take an holistic approach and make decisions in the best interests of the whole business.

It takes a degree of maturity and experience to act in this way and still be able to make a worthwhile contribution. This approach also obliged you to take more that a passing interest in what other functions are working on (which of course you should already be doing) in order to have an informed opinion.