235. What's at the top of our expertise wish list?

This season, every episode of OMG focuses on a question that directors really need to answer.

OMG is written, produced, narrated and scored by Matt Fullbrook.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Question #33: What’s at the top of our expertise wish list? It’s been a couple of months since episode 207 where I urged you to consider what, specifically, makes a director great. I have asked *many* directors and executives that question and they have never, ever, answered by listing areas of expertise. And I think that makes sense, right? There’s no type or depth of expertise that, on its own, might make someone a great director. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need experts. In general, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the table stakes for boards include things like legal, audit, finance, strategy, executive experience, and so on. I could easily make a strong case for all of those. Without much more effort, I could make a case that they’re expendable. It’s also tempting to zoom in on emerging topics like AI or cybersecurity or DEI or modern slavery or whatever. Also all good options. And if we get an AI expert who’s also a great director who could possibly deny we’ve accomplished something important? But there are only so many seats at the table and we can’t tick every expertise box. And sometimes we might actually want TWO experts in the same area, right? So they can validate each other? I guess what I’m saying is that all expertise is optional, so if we’re resisting the urge to anchor to the status quo what would be at the top of our wish list? If we could add precisely one new area of expertise to our board, what would it be?