Significance and Functions of Board of Directors

According to a research study conducted by PwC, “Ninety-one percent of directors find new members through director recommendations, suggesting a preference for referrals by someone they know and trust. However, 67% use search firms.”

The constitution of company is never complete without a Board of Directors. At the start, it can be a single person – the lone founder – who represents the board. But it cannot go on like this for long as you will not be able to avail the benefits that are associated with having a board.

A board of directors plays an indispensable role in constitution and governance of most enterprises. The board is responsible for the firm's financial decisions and ensures smooth running for different legal procedures. The board has the authority to select, compensate and replace key executives, when necessary.

The major functions of boards members include:

·         Analyzing and facilitating corporate strategy and major plans of action

·         Reviewing and guiding annual budgets, business plans and  risk policy

·         Setting performance objectives & ensuring their execution

·         Monitoring corporate performance

·         Overseeing major capital expenditures, divestitures and acquisitions

A nominating entity – usually the founder – first nominates the members for the Board of Directors. The nominated members are then elected by shareholders through voting. It is important to select experienced and responsible board members who can contribute efficiently in the growth of the company.

If you are looking for some effective guidance on selecting the right set of board members, you can seek some useful advice from CEO peer groups. The stalwarts and industry leaders from non-competitive organizations meet at a CEO conference and share their experiences and knowledge with a candid, honest, no-holds-barred approach.

CEO groups act as a great platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to seek help and counseling to build a successful business entity.

In this blog I have discussed the importance and functions of a Board of Members. In my next blog I will suggest some tips that you should consider while nominating directors for your enterprise. Watch this space!

Realize the Importance of Business Ethics

In the present world, every organization requires a code of conduct or business ethics to have an identity of its own. A business code of conduct clearly defines organizational value system and the behavioral guidelines for the people who are associated with the organization.

Implementation of business code of ethics – establishing a set of core values and behavior for staff – boosts organization’s corporate governance efforts. It helps staff stay aware of the right course of action; hazards of following unethical behavior pattern; and the hierarchy for the flow of information.

Business ethics defines core values to maintain a harmony in the organization. Since business ethics represents the company’s stand towards corporate social responsibility, the reputation of the organization also depends on it.

Here are some ways that can help a CEO establish business ethics in his organization:

Prepare the Policy Document

The management should ensure that there is a detailed structure of the ethics program clearly mentioning the code of conduct for employees. The business ethics should include additional policies that address diversity, sexual harassment, workplace aggression, equal opportunity at all.

Design Implementation Strategies

The success of a program depends on implementation strategies. It is the responsibility of Human Resources (HR) department to ensure that code of conduct is mentioned in the appointment letters so that new joiners know the importance of business ethics.

It is a good practice to display the business ethics on notice boards, entrances or other preferred sites. HR should also conduct workshops, quizzes and training session to make sure that employees are aware of business ethics. Business ethical issues should be dealt strictly and serious action should be taken against the defaulters to set the example.

Training & Awareness

Communication is the most effective technique to implement the Code of Conduct successfully. There are number of ways to ensure that staff and external stakeholders are aware of business ethics and are following it.

A few are listed below:

•  Design and develop class room training material including PPT presentations, handbooks, teaching  manuals and illustrations for educating the employees on the detailed policies.

•   Take the help of questionnaires, ethical tests, and case studies to check if your staff cares about the     business ethics.

• Publish relevant cases of ethical dilemmas on the intranet

• Make sure the business ethics doc is available on intranet and every staff member has an access to it.

• Let your staff know how much you are serious about the business ethics by circulating the information if someone is terminated for misbehavior.

If you are looking for detailed guidance about drafting and implementation of business ethics for your enterprise, executive coaching can help you. CEO club offers executive business coaching on how to run your business operations smoothly. Apart from guiding you on business ethics, a CEO group provides you practical solutions for different business issues.

Tap into Linkedin for Expanding Your Network

Businesses now understand the importance of using Facebook and Twitter for marketing. However many small businesses have failed to tap the power and reach of Linkedin.com, the popular social networking site frequented by professionals, career aspirants, business owners, corporate leaders and self-employed people.

Linkedin can be a powerful tool for online marketing and business needs. Unlike Facebook, Linkedin is not merely a social networking site where you can post comments or pictures. Rather Linkedin is a huge network of influential people from around the world who are there to establish contacts with people relevant to their business.

Here is why you must utilize this powerful tool for your business:

Build contacts

Linked-in lets you build a strong network of contacts. You don't need to know the individual in person to get in touch with him/her. Either you can send an introductory message or ask a mutual contact to introduce you to the concerned person. So this way, you can meet potential clients, business providers and experts in your business.

Increased visibility

Having a profile on Linked-in increases your visibility and credibility. People are more likely to do business with you knowing that you have a good number of acquaintances on Linkedin which others also know and trust. Besides, Linkedin pages are also indexed by Google. So if your public profile on Linkedin has a high page-rank on Google, it works great for your business.

Get feedback

Whether you want to know about the feedback of your latest product or service, you can post your business related questions on Linkedin. The Answers feature on Linkedin allows you to share ideas, post questions to your connections and give suggestions. In short, you get instant feedback.

Hire new people

Linkedin is an effective platform for sourcing new talent. Whenever you require new people for your organization, you can easily search relevant profiles on Linkedin for recruiting people. This saves a lot of expenditure on discovering or searching for potential candidates.

Linkedin is one of the effective tools for marketing your business. As a CEO or a senior executive, you need to meet new people in business and learn from them. You can join a corporate executive coaching or executive business coaching sessions where you can meet experienced CEOs, presidents and senior executives and learn from their mistakes. You can share your fears without any hesitation as in an executive coaching as everything is confidential and get honest feedback.

6 Tips for Using Twitter For Business Communication

Wondering what 140 characters of text can do for your business? If used smartly, Twitter can be a very powerful tool for marketing your business and enhancing your online presence. A business profile on Twitter with regular, informative tweets is a great way of keeping in touch with people who would like to know more about your products or services.

Twitter is easy-to-use micro-blogging site which helps everyone from business owners and CEOs to companies and marketing personnel to keep themselves connected with their target audience with short, insightful posts.

Here are some top benefits of using Twitter:

• The popularity of Twitter has ensured that a major part of your target audience is on this social networking website, sharing and discussing ideas, products, services, experiences and opinions. Once you start posting on your products and services or offerings with catchy tweets, you may start attracting interested followers. You can thus keep your followers updated on your business offerings, plans and products.

• Follow people who are tweeting on topics and issues that concern your business. Retweeting these posts, posting responses and offering solutions help increase visibility of your profile and business. You can even send direct messages to followers who are interested in your business offerings.

• Your competitors too are on Twitter. Follow them, go through their tweets and you may get some good ideas about how to respond to customer queries, announce business expansion plans, launch new products and interact with the target audience. Being on Twitter is an easy way of monitoring your competition.

• Twitter is also SEO-friendly. By posting a tweet along with a URL, you can redirect the traffic to the targeted landing page. And if you have your company's blog, you can advertise the blog posts on Twitter.

• You can use Twitter on your mobile device as well.

• You can use Twitter for recruitment purpose too. Tweet about the job requirement and you may soon receive responses from potential candidates.

Twitter is easy and very convenient to use. Best part is you can market your brand or business openly. Twitter allows you to keep your products, services, brand and business out there for everybody to see.

Twitter is of course, like any other social networking site where you can reach out to many people at once through the virtual media and keep yourself informed about the latest developments in your industry. But when it comes to knowing more about managing your business effectively, a face-to-face interaction with your peers or fellow business owners is always a preferred option.

Seek the company of experienced entrepreneurs through CEO clubs and CEO associations or join a reliable CEO peer group in your city. Attending an executive business coaching session is also a good way of getting hand-on knowledge about how to manage your business better.

Upgrade Managerial Skills With Executive Coaching

Gone are the days when key executives could reach heights by just mastering their technical or functional areas. Today, a lot more is expected from the senior executives. As a senior executive, you are expected to assist the CEO in making the deals successful and chalk out the organization's future course. You play a major role in launching and marketing your new products and services and generate ongoing revenue streams.

While the CEO focuses on the vision and business strategies, you are responsible for building the culture in your department that your CEO envisions. And whenever a business gets into some financial crisis, you are expected to be the main support of the CEO in turning the fortunes of the company.

You have to show your leadership qualities in implementing the changes within the organization and be the best in your area of expertise and so on. In short, you have to be the role model to others. Expectations are so high that at times it becomes difficult even for extremely professional and brilliant executives to manage. That is where executive coaching comes to the rescue. These executive coaching sessions aim to help you increase your productivity, skill sets, managerial skills and your contribution to your organization's growth.

As a senior executive, time is of utmost value. Corporate executive coaching guides you on how to manage your time effectively. You have to figure out what are your priorities and accordingly spend time on the most important things. You can manage a calendar or a dairy in which you can chalk out which areas deserve your utmost attention and plan accordingly.

Besides the time management skills, you can learn various other things at executive coaching sessions such as honing your leadership qualities and learning about how to put your point of view across in a way so that it gets heard and is acknowledged by your team.

Creating a talented team of people to work with you with equal enthusiasm, team spirit and productivity is not child's play. It requires in-depth understanding of fundamental rules of team-building. To learn these managerial skills, strategies and insights, it is beneficial to undergo an executive coaching in Atlanta or anywhere else in the USA. These sessions will help you to view the problems and find their solutions in a new way which you might have missed earlier.