The Power of a Different Room: The PRISM Board Governance Conference and Takeaways for CGOs
Board governance is a trending topic for growth officers and leaders in professional services firms.
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Growth leaders spend much of their time looking forward, managing growth expectations up, down, across, and outside of the firm. Where will the next opportunities come from? What markets should the firm pursue? How do we build the sales capabilities to compete? Do we take on outside investment or remain independent? What do the next 3-5 years look like for us and for our profession?
We don’t often step outside those thoughts to reflect, learn, and develop the perspective needed to answer them.
When I’m asked for leadership advice, I often tell people to make sure they’re investing in themselves. You are your best bet, every time.
In that spirit, I recently attended the Private Directors Association’s PRISM conference, which brought together leaders and experts in board governance. While much of the conversation centered on boards of directors, there were some natural connections to my work with Chief Growth Officers and leadership teams in professional services firms.
This is something I’m personally passionate about and building my next chapter around. I have served as a board chair for a large non-profit, and I am currently serving on the board of a portfolio company through my angel investing work. I’ve experienced firsthand how governance can be a collaborative partner to growth officers and leaders.
If there is one theme I could reinforce for professional services leaders, it’s that outside perspective is a necessity.
Too many firms are listening only to other voices inside of the firm, instead of leveraging independent voices through advisory boards or fiduciary boards. With more outside investment pouring into firms, that dynamic is changing but still slow to unfold. The firm of the future will be the one that sees this outside perspective as a cultural and competitive advantage and takes steps to formalize this outside perspective.
How Can Professional Services Firms Make Better Growth Strategy Decisions?
I’m sharing two key takeaways from the conference. If this sparks interest in a conversation about how outside advisory can help your firm, please reach out to schedule a conversation.
1. Growth strategy requires better decisions versus more ideas. It requires leaders to loosen entrenched thinking.
Professional services firms have no shortage of potential growth opportunities. In the last five years, these opportunities have significantly intensified. New industries, geographic expansion, acquisitions, services, and outside investment potential all compete for attention and resources.
I believe leaders are facing a decision-making crisis within their firms and with clients and prospects. Some of this crisis is created by outside forces. But most of it is created from within by fear and entrenched thinking. This crisis shows up in different ways: the struggle to move into new business models, the struggle to qualify opportunities (firm level and client level), and the nearly constant shifting of priorities and reallocation of resources.
Professional services firms often rely on partners and practice leaders whose judgment has been shaped by years of client work and narrow industry or technical expertise. It’s an asset, but it can also make it difficult to question established thinking and take strategic risk.
For some additional reading on this topic, I’ve previously shared a Balanced Data Framework for making better growth decisions. It offers a practical way to balance reliable data, real-world context, and professional judgment when evaluating strategic choices.
For a Chief Growth Officer or firm leader, these are some questions worth exploring:
- What assumptions are driving our growth strategy?
- Where are we most exposed (i.e., our greatest risk)?
- Are we considering perspectives that challenge our existing thinking?
- Which investments have the possibility to position us well, but are likely to be met with fear?
- Are we a culture that will allow the appropriate time for the ROI on a decision to unfold?
2. Governance and growth are highly connected. The firm of the future will actively seek to formalize independent outside voices.
Another key theme from the conference was the role of advisory boards and the importance of designing them with a clear purpose. For professional services firms, an advisory board can bring valuable outside perspective to strategic decisions without fiduciary responsibility. The effectiveness of an advisory board depends on how it is defined, its purpose and structure, and how it engages with the rest of the firm.
As firms grow, the informal decision-making approaches that worked at an earlier stage may no longer be sufficient. Increased complexity, new markets, emerging technologies, and evolving client needs place different demands on leadership. It’s an understatement to say that the pace of change continues to increase. It’s virtually impossible for a leader to stay in front of the complexity of issues without outside perspective and expertise.
To read more on outside expertise, I’ve written about why a sales and growth perspective is important to effective board leadership, particularly when organizations are evaluating new markets, acquisitions, and other strategic investments.
There’s a hidden strategy many leaders overlook: non-profit board service. In this video, Amy Franko shares why she urges leaders to seriously consider integrating board service into their team’s growth plans. It’s a powerful way to not only benefit your team members but also fuel your organization’s growth.
How Can Effective Board Leadership Support Business Growth?
My own experience as a board chair also shapes these perspectives. One of my most important lessons from the board chair seat was the value of facilitation as a “behind-the-scenes” leadership skill. It was my role to facilitate discussion, promote oversight and not management, and perhaps most importantly, support the leadership team.
The conversations at PRISM reinforced the value of intentionally bringing different perspectives into strategic discussions, whether through a fiduciary board, an advisory board, or other forums.
CGOs have a critical role. With a firmwide view of markets, clients, services, and growth opportunities, a CGO is often positioned to identify where strategic decisions require broader input or greater discipline. That perspective can help leadership teams recognize when the firm’s growth ambitions and existing structures might collide.
These are two questions to consider for your next executive team or board meeting:
- Does our approach to strategic decision-making support the growth we want to achieve?
- Where are we relying on structures and assumptions that served an earlier version of the firm?
Could an Outside Perspective Strengthen Your Firm’s Growth Strategy?
Amy Franko works with Chief Growth Officers and leadership teams to navigate complex growth decisions, challenge existing assumptions, and identify new opportunities. Contact Amy to start a conversation about your firm’s next chapter.
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