Alison Platt is an experienced board chair and non-executive director. She chairs Ageas UK and serves on the boards of Tesco, where she chairs the remuneration committee, and Inchcape, where she is Senior Independent Director. She is also a member of the UK Takeover Panel and was, until recently, chair of Hargreaves Lansdown. Previously, she was CEO of Countrywide and held senior roles at Bupa and British Airways.
In this interview with Board Intelligence CEO Pippa Begg, Alison shares her views on what makes boards effective, how to unlock their collective value, and the importance of intentionality in the boardroom.
How can boards be more effective?
My starting point is that boards are a paid-for resource. Directors should be absolutely clear, both individually and collectively, about how they add value.
When I take on a new chair role, there’s one question I always ask the board: "If this board knocked it out of the park over the next three years, what would we have done?" It stimulates a healthy debate which helps us align around a shared vision of what great would look like over the coming years.
And I’m very clear: everyone around the board table needs to take personal accountability for the whole. That means leaning into conversations outside your area of expertise, never being afraid to ask the "dumb or awkward" questions, and thinking systemically. It’s up the chair to foster an environment that encourages that sort of approach.
How do you measure board effectiveness in practice?
The first thing is to set specific goals. That initial conversation about what "great" looks like gives you something to measure against. Then, you check in: are we doing what we said we’d do?
Beyond that, it’s situational. On the Tesco board, which I joined after the accounting scandal, the chair at the time John Allan told us, "Never will someone say, ‘I didn’t know.’" That meant being present — with suppliers, with customers, in the community. As a board member, you need to spend time in the business. It’s a blunt instrument, but how much time directors spend engaging with the business and its stakeholders is a powerful indicator.
When I joined Hargreaves Lansdown, we agreed to move all of the board meetings to Bristol (where all our colleagues are based). That gave people time to listen to customer calls, sit with the tech team, and see the end-to-end operation. It’s about putting yourself in the environment where you can learn and challenge effectively. It’s a much faster way to learn about the realities of the customer and colleague experience of a business.
What do you think about annual board reviews as a measure of effectiveness?
Honestly, I think if you're waiting for the annual board review to know how it's going, you're already behind. To use board reviews as an input to board effectiveness, you have to ask, "How are we adding value?" That’s the real question. And if the answer is, "We’re not," then something has to change.
Used well, the annual board effectiveness review is a critical tool. I prefer to ask what we can do to be better rather than have it be solely backward looking.
What makes for effective board decision-making?
It starts long before the meeting. It’s about how well you know the business. Take the Esure acquisition at Ageas, for example. The key issue wasn’t the business case; that made total sense. The real questions were “Can the organisation absorb this level of change?” and “What needs to be true for this to be a great investment?”
Because the board had spent time in the business, we could have that conversation and bring that scrutiny and interrogation in a positive way. We understood the implications for leadership, tech, capital, risk appetite — all of it. You can’t get that from a slide deck.
By contrast, when Tesco was looking to buy Booker, it was a sector we didn’t know. Tesco is a grocery retailer, and we didn't know wholesale and catering. John Allan made us work through our questions, get informed fast, and brought in external support to immerse us in the detail of the sector. He also ensured we all kept that sense of personal accountability for the decision. When we went around the table, each person had to say whether they were supportive or not, and outline why.
What does good look like when it comes to board information?
Tesco is a standout example. The CFO, Imran Nawaz, is brilliant at cutting through complexity. In his reporting he's really thought about what the board needs and what matters and gives us a clear narrative: here’s what we’re pleased about, here’s what we’re watching, and so on.
He uses graphics to show the flow of performance — not just the numbers, but what they mean. During the inflation spike, for instance, he mapped the journey from supplier costs to shelf prices and compared that to the competition. It was simple, visual and incredibly effective.
You can read his board pack in an hour and get a true picture. That’s the art of storytelling. In a board context, it’s what makes the difference between awareness and understanding.
What role does the board play in supporting innovation?
It depends on the business. Innovation wasn’t the priority at Hargreaves Lansdown when I joined. We had to fix the base first, so we could earn the right to think about innovation. But at Tesco, innovation is about opening up new growth streams — going beyond the industry default strategy of opening more stores — so it’s right at the heart of the agenda.
The board needs to reflect the business’s priorities. At Tesco, the chair has nudged the agenda to look further ahead. He’s encouraged the team to think ten years out, to bring in outside perspectives, and to get the board comfortable with those long-term, strategic conversations. That’s how you build a culture that supports innovation from the top down.
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