BizMore, September 17, 2009 - The Company: Fliqz, a 22-employee startup based in Emeryville, Calif., provides video hosting services to companies like Major League Baseball and Monster.com.
The Practice:
As the CEO of a small but growing business, Benjamin Wayne has his hands full. To get the most out of his four-member board of directors, Wayne limits each meeting to a one-hour discussion of one or two strategic challenges facing the company. The result: He gets the expertise he needs from his directors to help run his business.
How they do it:
1: Keep directors involved (between) meetings. Wayne knows what it’s like to sit through directors’ meetings that drag on for hours and veer aimlessly without any clear results. At Fliqz, he decided to do things differently. For starters, he doesn’t wait for a board meeting to update directors on the company’s finances. Instead, he emails each one on the last day of each month with an update on the company’s key financial metrics, goals, competition and any other critical developments. The reports clearly spell out what went right and what went wrong during the month. “It’s not useful for a board to spend hours [during meetings] focusing on the operational minutiae of every aspect of the company’s operations,” says Wayne.
2: Save the critical stuff for meetings. When Fliqz directors do meet at the company’s headquarters every six to eight weeks, Wayne makes sure their time is well spent. He caps most gatherings to one hour and keeps them focused on one or two critical issues he’s identified beforehand, such as how to improve the company’s search engine marketing. Wayne starts each meeting with a short overview of the agenda’s topic, outlines solutions, and requests very specific feedback. He then allows 45 minutes for directors to ask questions and debate solutions. “I’m tapping the expertise of the board in a very controlled way,” explains Wayne. “Too often board meetings become a catch-all for all sorts of activities. I’m getting buy-in and value without asking them to comment on everything.”
3: Be flexible as your company grows – and its needs change. Wayne admits that his 60-minute rule isn’t hard and fast. Some meetings last 20 minutes; others can go for two hours. The point is that, for startups especially, the Fliqz model keeps CEOs and directors focused. No one has to suffer through a parade of PowerPoint presentations by company vice presidents that offer little opportunity for questions or feedback. But as companies get bigger, so does the list of issues that need directors’ direct involvement – and PowerPoint-wielding executives to explain them. Meetings inevitably grow longer. What’s more, some CEOs and directors may prefer freewheeling meetings. The Fliqz format “might not work for everybody,” admits Steve Bennett, Fliqz’s chief financial officer.