Technology boards: data, failure, and the role of the SID

Summary:
Insight from Anne de Kerkchove on the integral nature of quality data and the nature of failure for the Board of any growing technology business. Anne de Kerckhove is Chair of Eagle Eye, SID & Committee Chair at 888holdings Holdings and Blackbird plc, and limited partner at CRE Venture Capital. Formerly, she was CEO at FreeSpee Ltd and Iron Investments Ltd,, Chair at Metail, and NED at 7digital.

Main Body of Content:
In a wide ranging discussion with Nurole, Anne de Kerkchove shares her perspective on topics like the value of data to the Board (especially the right data) as well as, the need to be comfortable with failure, and the versatile nature of a SID.

➕Give your board the right data: “By looking at the data, boards don't switch into being micromanagers. Good data is the opposite. If you have a good board pack, if you have the right metrics, that's when a board member stays a board member. When they start questioning the data because they're not getting the information, your natural human instinct is to ‘go, well, give me more data, give me more data’, and then you become intrusive.”

➕Fail fast & often: “People that do international business have to be meticulous, data-driven risk takers. Because fundamentally, when you expand internationally, there's a big chance of failure. You have to be comfortable with that. And when you fail, you have to fail fast and move out of the market. But if you launch, let's say, in 10 markets, one will be a massive success that you really hadn't predicted, another one will just fall flat, and then there's going to be a bunch in the middle.”

➕The role of the SID: “The SID role is not defined as one thing. It's 100 different things. You have to be the voice for shareholders if they don't feel the chair is listening to them. You have to be the voice of the other board members if they feel they're not getting what they need out of the chair. You're also the sounding board for the chair. .. So you're also very close to your chair whilst also being a voice that has to challenge them if somebody thinks they're not doing a good job. So it's a really interesting role. You have to be very comfortable with awkward conversations.”

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