When governance becomes a burden
If your organisation has grown rapidly, expanded into new markets, or had to meet new regulatory requirements, you may recognise these signs:
- Unfocused board or committee meetings, with overlapping remits.
- Agendas packed with information, crowding out decisions.
- Lengthy board packs, backwards-looking and lacking insights.
- Time-consuming preparation, leading to outdated data.
- Slow decision-making, through bureaucratic escalation routes.
- Directors struggling to fulfil their duties amidst it all.
The result? Governance that costs time and money without adding equivalent value. Boards become bottlenecks rather than catalysts, and management spends more time preparing meetings than executing.
The 5-pronged fix to board effectiveness
Changing course requires a rethink. Building on our 5 I’s methodology, we’ll run a simplification project tailored to your needs. This could include:
- Governance diagnostic, to understand structures, processes, and pain points via surveys, consultations, and analysis of materials, agendas, and minutes.
- Committee simplification, to rationalise remits, reduce duplication, and clarify decision-making authority.
- Strategic priority-setting, to define the ambition and translate how forums’ mandates — and forward agendas — support it.
- Information redesign, to ensure OKR/KPI cover financial, non-financial, and long-term value drivers, and define the questions regular updates should address to inform them.
- Capability building, including training on effective report writing, board pack preparation, and board development.
- Technology enablement, to improve efficiency through board portals, AI-powered report/minute writing, and smart dashboards.
We’ll collaborate with your team throughout via regular progress calls and working sessions, ensuring the solutions are practical and implementable.
Why Board Intelligence?
Unlike traditional consulting firms that approach governance through risk and compliance, we focus on enabling agility and value creation. We’re not here to add more process, more policy, or more bureaucracy. We’re here to help you streamline what you have and make it work harder for you.
Our approach combines the science of board effectiveness — developed over two decades of real-world boardroom experience with 3,000+ organisations globally — with practical experience implementing change. We don’t just hand you a report. We work alongside your management and governance teams to diagnose issues, design solutions, and implement improvements that deliver measurable impact.