I am young ambitious person with a great international track record coaching startups and disrupting various industries.
Can you help me to find my first non-executive board position to bring my knowledge to the table?
Please Help Me to Find a Non-Executive Board Position
evgpek on 14/03/2017 - 12:48
Last edited 14/03/2017 - 12:56 by 1 other user
Last edited 14/03/2017 - 12:56 by 1 other user
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Some examples of industry disruptors:
Google. Online Advertising. Value: US$594,000,000,000
Uber. Taxi industry. Value: expected US$70,000,000,000 (bigger than Ford or GM)
Airbnb. Accommodation. Value: US$30,000,000,000When you disrupt an entire industry, you're kind of a big deal. I'm not sure indie disruption is a thing.
Webvan.com - disrupted grocery delivery current value $0
Pets.com - disrupted pet industry current value $0Kind of a big deal indeed ;-)
You'll have to provide a single credible link describing either of those two as disruptors to justify an 'indeed'. Neither of those two had consumer shifts or competition casualties. Pets.com (320 employees?, "revenues of $619,000, yet spent $11.8 million on advertising") couldn't even sell items for a profit. They both are characterised by being unembraced by the market.
I can't really reconcile your choices with the OP's "great international track record coaching startups and disrupting various industries". You've chosen DOAs.
Both were spectacular dotcom failures that sunk billions of investors money in the late 1990s.
Both claimed to disrupt the market with a new paradigm and were extremely richly valued like uber or Airbnb, well ahead of their revenues, like uber and airbnb. I agree with you that uber and airbnb will likely end up justifying a high valuation (though both look extremely fully valued and dependant on no change in local laws etc. and everything executing perfectly, so I think they would be highly risky investments/speculations), but market cap can provide misleading indications.The OP didn't claim to have successfully disrupted a market, either ;-)
@mskeggs:
If I were arguing with me, I would have chosen Theranos as an example of a poster child disruptor failure…it's still a big deal, though.Regarding semantics, I think saying one had a great international track record prostituting would suggest one was a prostitute.
@Frugal Rock:
Any involvement in prostitution by the OP is just speculation at this point, and almost certainly not speculation they would have anticipated when they posted the question!
Theranos were actively either negligent or fraudulent, though, weren't they? But yes, the market generally wants to believe. Witness Firepower here (how could a company reputable enough to be sponsoring football teams be literally a fraud!?!).
And Uber continues to lose money, so the valuation is all fairy fluff…I can imagine their analyst DCF model it is all red and suddenly 50% growth rate from 2025 to perpetuity. Garbage in garbage out…
Nope. If you want to learn about becoming a director, learn from directors via the AICD. The Company Directors Course is 10x this one and it doesn't end there, but you get what you pay for.
Baby steps…
Has anyone ever got a company director job without any experience on just a course on their resume, let alone a non-exectutive sinecure?
Umm no but it would be a good place to start
I have.
When elected President of a GO8 University Student Association, the constitution required me to be a Director of the managing group of National Student Pubs, Book Stores, Art Stores and general space of which my Association was a core constituent.
Was it for me. Not really. Did I have enough commercial experience at the age of 21 to add any value. Not Really.
Any who, it was fun and I learnt a lot about business administration.
I was in the same position.
Highly skilled (school in Congo), international experience (Rwanda, Congo, Egypt, Maroc) but no one wants my skills.
Not sure what to do, I really do want someone to give me their hard worked money and their company so I can and shine.
Any advice ?
P.S. This is a highly competitive market, not like the ones you find in EU or Asia
Well what are the chances! I need a forward thinker like you on my board.
Just contribute $25,000,000 into my startup and I'll give you a few shares and a non executive board position.
We will have a wank party first Tuesday of every month.
"We will have a wank party first Tuesday of every month."
Exactly what kind of business is this you're starting up?
The good kind
We do business stuff
I do admire your ambition, although I sense you're going to need some reality here. Unless you're very famous no one is going to pay you to be on a board at a young age. So you can forget about that for the next 10-15 years.
If you want to crack into non-executive board roles you'll be donating substantial amounts of your time to not-for-profit boards for quite. You'll need this to build up your board level experience and resume. If you've got a regular day job then you will need to use just about all of your Annual Leave from your current role to start getting the right experience. You need to be present for board meetings physically, and bust your ass to prepare for them if you're new.
Ambition and youth could indeed count against you unless you bring a seriously amazing track record and solid qualifications. A lot of what the board does requires years and years of experience, seeing the often highly nuanced warning signs of; governance issues, bad procedures, culture problems, emerging risks and the need for business transformation. A board doesn't involve itself in the day to day running of a company and coaching unless there are major problems.
A board role is also a long term commitment 5-7 years MINIMUM, onboarding a new board member takes resources, so if there is even the slightest impression that you want to jump from board to board then you will struggle (it will also look horrible on your resume to future boards if you do this).
"Coaching startups and disrupting various industries" are not typically skills required for a board. A board might be responsible for ensuring that the right framework is in place to creat disruption in markets, do you know enough about that in med/large organisations?
Number 1, you need to get qualified.
Do you know the role of a board? Do you understand the legal obligations of being a director? What are the duties of a director? Do you know how to read financial reports? Are you qualified to do so? You've zero experience, so you need to start making up for that with education.Start here:
AICD Foundations of Directorship This is a basic course and will cost you ~$4,500 and takes 3 days full time + an exam, although being inexperienced you should probably consider the below option
Company Directors Course, costs about $9,500 and takes 5 days full time + exams.Source: Me, first board position for a large not-for-profit enterprise at 34 and member of the AICD. I was lucky in many ways that I had unique skills which were in-demand.
But it's not all "yay I'm a director". The board you're on will want to get something out of you. It's bloody hard work, doubly so because inexperience means you have to work so much harder reading board papers, doing research and educating yourself.
I am left speechless by the fact that those courses actually exist. Incredible.
Why wouldn't they? Directors carry the ultimate legal responsibility for a company. It's not a trivial thing. Directors are personally liable.
For example, EVERY director needs to know how to read company financial reports, they also need to know how to query them and get advice on things they don't understand. It's not good enough to rely on other more qualified directors to be happy with the financials. If the company trades insolvent you can bet that the receivers will come after all the directors for their personal assets.
I was fortunate in that I feel very passionately for the purpose of the organisation I'm a director of, so it's easy to give up my time to educate myself to help the organisation.
I am not disputing anything you say. However, you cannot learn that properly in a short course.
For the reasons you mentioned people who have plenty of experience and ideally a degree for at least one of the activities you mentioned should be on a board such as a company lawyer who practised for 10+ years, an account, financial controllers or managers etc.
I do not believe that anyone who has little or no work experience will get qualified for any board position through doing courses like that. In fact, I have had to sort out quite a few issues caused by those short courses (and general lack of abilities in the areas you mentioned) in the past - the resulting legal issues can be a nightmare, even for lawyers.
If any of my clients asks for a recommendation for the ideal candidate for a board position I generally tell them plenty of work experience and exposure (resulting in successful outcomes), at least one appropriate degree, and a good dose of common sense. I do advise them to stay far, far away from people whose only qualification is a short course of any kind.
There is a good reasons why many directors on the boards of the big companies around the world are professionals such as lawyers, accountants, and financial controllers - they possess the skills, abilities, and experience to adequately and successfully perform in these positions.
That is just my humble opinion and experience thus far.
The OP should get a degree in any of the above mentioned disciplines, then work in that field for 10+15 years and then he can think about a board position.
@Lysander: Lawyers, accountants and financial expertise are definitely needed on every board. But it's not the only way to progress to board positions, and a good board will always have a mix of backgrounds and experiences.
Indeed a board with only lawyers and accountants sounds like a pretty terrible idea to me.
By no means do these short courses immediately qualify you for a board position, let me be clear on that. They are however a good start, and the accreditation is looked upon favourably when seeking candidates to fill board positions. However, it's just one among many things to consider.
There are large amounts of information you need before you can even understand what a board position is, which need to be learned somewhere. The courses are good for that.
Well, if you consider the courses as a taster to decide if a board position is for you, then ok. However, for that they are definitely too pricey.
I am sorry but I really feel people are getting milked here for this kind of stuff. I have seen a law firm offer basic contract law workshops for businesses in Melbourne which were 6 hours and cost $1200 which I found ridiculous.
This kind of stuff should not cost this much money (by the way I work in law and business myself and I still think those things are way too overpriced).
Also, I find it very strange that for everything here a piece of paper exists. RSA, RGA, Traffic Management Shourt Course etc. Really not my kind of thing and in my view just a way to make quick money and artificially create extra jobs that, when being honest, are completely superfluous.@Lysander: Not going to fault you on that one, they're damn expensive and yet another little qualification. Fortunately, many boards set aside funds for director development because it's important. So you can often tap into those, but I guess only if you're already a director.
If you go into it looking for another set of letters to add to your resume, then yep you've a valid point, it's pretty meaningless. I feel the same way about these random little courses that pop up too.
On the AICD course, I will say that the course was actually very high quality, very personal and at no point did I feel like switching off. It was quite a surprise. They are highly engaging, which is pretty rare for training. It's pretty useful for non-directors too, gives you a great insight into the board and prepares you for reporting into one.
to give you an example, the Governance Course was run by an investigative journalist. She had dug up dirt on each and every participant in the room and came armed with dossiers on each person. Taught the course entirely through grilling people and working through their examples. Which is much like the exposure you have in the real world. Mistakes have severe and public consequences, so don't make them
@Lysander:
The main reason for the AICD courses are industry networking. All the sales management I have ever met are keen AICD graduates who work the network.
Not that the courses aren't useful, as mentioned, there is a fair bit to learn about being on a board.@mskeggs: You've got a valid point there, indeed well network directors are highly valuable on boards for a number of reasons. A board can't have the experience to deal with the multitude of different problems that come along (or could happen). So being able to consult your network and get help on specific issues is very helpful.
As mentioned by a few comments, it is also used when recruiting new board members. Putting out a Seek ad is a very difficult way to recruit quality directors. I'll agree this makes it hard to crack into if you're on the "outside". Indeed some people with a lot to offer might be overlooked. But A large part of a good board is how it works together, bringing different perspectives and opinions on the same issue. This makes your manners, the way you disagree under pressure, listening and your respect for others extremely important.
No doubt the networking also helps sales people too…. recruiters also get in there for the same reason.
Involving the audience is good. What she did won't work on everybody though, especially not without breaking laws.
From work experience I can tell you that a lot of those journalists break privacy and data protection laws (in the nature of their job) - not exactly what you want to teach to highly regulated future directors or board members. We had one client who broke so many laws in that area so often that she could only hope to come clean, whistleblow and ask for leniency and mercy. She then switched jobs - hope it is not the same one. ;-)The course is fine if it is paid for by the company and hence tax-deductible. However, I still believe that you cannot learn something in a lasting way in such a short space of time. Most people I come across have an attention span of about 30 minutes at most so cramming something quite legal into heads for hours in 5 or 7 days does not produce lasting effects. Sure, short-term and for the exam it will work but do the exam 12 months later unannounced and you will see what is left.
Learning something over the space of several years is much better in my opinion.That works if you are employed and have a network which you do after you have worked for a while.
Imagine a director's course filled with people all like the OP - no experience, no network and doing the course to network. Of course they then know each other but not useful as no one has a job and everyone was hoping for highly connected people at the course.
Hilarious and tragic at the same time.@Lysander: As far as I know almost all of it was all publically available, she knew her stuff and could match linked-in profiles to other public information and companies in the news. For the few people without any public information, she was able to ask employers and the references which needed to be supplied as part of the application for the course.
Well Lysander, get ready for the real world. Where some investigative journalist will indeed dig up dirt, however they want, if you're doing the wrong thing and there is something there. The point being, directors can make very public mistakes which will follow them forever.
The consequences are real and can have huge impacts on your reputation, the staff and shareholders. It's not a trivial responsibility.
I know all of that. Guess what one of my specialisations is: privacy and data protection law so I do take care what's out there about me. No FB, no Linkedin, no Whatsapp etc.
And I am happy to get people what they deserve for breaking those laws, investigative journalist or not. If they break laws, they are no better than the people they accuse.A lot of people that do the courses are professionals with loads of experience in an industry that perhaps come from backgrounds other than law or accounting. Engineers for example that aspire to leadership roles with large engineering firms, or those striking out to startup their own engineering companies but little understanding of their legal obligations. They might have 20+ years of experience understanding all of the issues with large engineering projects but little understanding of the legal obligations on Directors.
I am an experienced exec with 30+ years under my belt and several degrees. I have recently started up my own software company and we have 3 government contracts and a growing workforce. I would love to do this course to understand my legal obligations, at the moment I am stumbling from lesson to lesson under the guidance of my accountant and lawyer praying to myself that i am not breaking any laws. i am working a fulltime job whilst also employing 10 people to develop software on contracts for my own private company. it is a crazy juggling act that takes up all of my work and personal time. if i could get 5 days free I would do this course in a heartbeat.
@2ndeffort: It takes a lot more than 5 days to get value out of the CDC. Pre-reading, thinking, and the assignment which brings everything together.
Apart from the legal and fiduciary duties, as a small business owner, you'll probably get a lot of value from the strategy, risk and financial modules.
@ihbh: I was about to say the same thing. I'm on my own board for my small business and it has been invaluable. Given I'm not a lawyer or accountant there was heaps to learn.
I've only completed the 3-day foundations course, same as the 5-day it had a lot of pre-reading and preparing for the exam. Big time investment and worth every second.
Do you know if there are many doctors in directorship positions? Lawyers and accountants and others with formal training in business and finance I can see would be an asset to a board, but what about doctors? Would there be much use of them outside of health related organisations?
Not sure about the statistics.
Doctors would be very useful in wide range of health organisations like pharma research, pharma manufacturing, hospitals, area health services, disease research and disease support charities etc. Would depend on the doctor I guess, your day-to-day GP might have limited value on a board if that was their only experience, but a doctor with broader experience in policy making and management would be highly valuable for some organisations.
poor OP. i too have been looking for an executive ceo presidential advisor role with diplomatic immunity and gold travel credit plantinum debit driverless car. ive read a few books and did ok at uni. please thank you.
diplomatic immunity
It's just been revoked.
No.
You need to apply at golf courses.
Surprised you are coming on a bargain website for help with those credentials. Why would you think bargain hunters would be able to give you credible help?
Anyway, before we spout some bs response to you, please confirm that you've not come to Australia to disrupt the industries which we work in.
Troll
He worked at masters in the floor board section and now thinks his ceo material.
"I am young ambitious person with a great international track record coaching startups and disrupting various industries."
So, have you actually created one of these startups, or ground away working extremely long hours in trying to make the startup a success? I ask this because 'coaching' sounds very much like being a consultant who is brought in for big bucks, writes a report on what's wrong with the business and what to do next in broad terms, and then lets everyone else do the actual work.
Which industries have you 'disrupted'? It's the hot word right now for Buzzword Bingo and doesn't really mean anything anymore. It's like saying you're 'passionate' about everything you do.
a great international track record coaching startups and disrupting various industrie
Tell us your name then…
Mr Trump… Welcome to Ozbargain… there is a great 10% Groupon on today you don't want to miss.
Dear OP, if you are really good as you described in your post, you should back yourself up.
Obviously there are people here (including myself) doubting you in many ways.
It is the perfect opportunity to show us how you handle the doubts and turn us into beliefs - which one of the key attributes a board member should have.Unless you are giving up now…
Networking and lots of it as mskeggs has said above; try to get into volunteering position;
I tried to work for free when I was trying to find a job, networking always helps; this will take you a long way towards demonstrating your skills and competence; or you can always think of something innovative/disruptive and start it yourself which will solidify your experience over here; and you could also have lots of Ozbargainers as prospective clients as long as it adds value at a bargainCorrect, the upper crust of the executive and non executive positions in a company are rarely found on seek.com but rather through your network.
My company is hiring board members we only have 1 requirement and it is :
Owning a 80k high yielding car
Soo…. what job did you land
Rumor has it hes now on the board for Pauline Hanson's outgoings.
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Marry Trumph's younger daughter.
You're set for life… Or until impeachment.