Startup Board Strategy: Riding the waves of change in the boardroom, with Karlijn Buis

Ultimately, the task of a supervisory board is to ensure long term value creation for the company shareholders. In the case of a scale-up, these shareholders are usually its founders and investors. One would think that with the supervisory board, founders and investors all wanting to achieve the same goal, being the company’s success, they are in for an easy ride.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. The inconvenient truth is that of all surviving startups only 0,4% reach more than 10 million revenues in 5 years. ¹ And Vinod Khosla (one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems) claims that 70-80% of venture board members add negative value to start-ups in the process. ² So apparently scaling a company is hard. And so is being an effective board member in a scale-up. Why is that?

For the simple reason that scaling a business is not an exact science, it is the work of people. It is the result of human characteristics, competencies and interactions against the backdrop of a highly volatile and ever-changing external environment.

Imagine the scale-up growth journey as a surfer getting ready to catch the perfect wave. In the beginning the company is struggling to even get up on the board. It’s all about getting the basics right. Developing a compelling vision, a happy first customer base, competitive edge and a scalable business model. ³  To then actually scale a company requires not just acceleration but transformation.

The minute the scale-up “gets up on the board”, several changes start happening at the same time. The organization expands and a new type of leadership might be required. Operational processes must be set up.  Strategic choices about how and where to grow need to be made. ⁴ In this phase, it is easy to develop blind spots. That is why this is the time to put extra effort in building a well-functioning and diverse supervisory board, that can support the company in riding the waves of change.

This phase requires a mixture of entrepreneurial and managerial experience, as well as specific industry knowledge. In terms of behavior, the supervisory board needs to strike a constant balance between providing challenge and support. The board has to look outwards at the external environment, but also have the guts to look inwards and reflect on its own performance on a regular basis. Putting significant thought into structuring the agenda and cadence of board meetings to ensure the elements above are taken into account can help a great deal in avoiding blindspots.

Too often, board meetings revolve around the issues of the day or financials only. But issues and numbers cannot be looked at in isolation. The supervisory board can play a key role in developing a holistic view of what is going on in and outside of the company and how the various elements are interconnected. To ride the waves, you need to understand the sea. And to understand the sea, it helps to have a diverse board composition. A strong, carefully designed and balanced “board” can provide the scale-up with that much needed stability required to weather the storm of scaling.

Karlijn has over 15 years of experience in strategy, business development, leadership, and project management. In 2019 she founded Lighthouse Projects, a consulting company that specializes in strategy development and execution in the area of sustainable business and energy transition. Karlijn helps companies and organizations that offer solutions for a more sustainable future to accelerate and scale their business or ideas, by providing focus, clarity and direction.