What is a Board of Directors? “A board of directors (B of D) is a group of individuals, elected to represent shareholders. A board’s mandate is to establish policies for corporate management and oversight, making decisions on major company issues.” – Investopedia

Corporate Board members get paid. But for what?

I have been on a number of boards – non-profit mainly, but also corporate. It was often called Board of Advisors rather than directors. I have been on boards (and Committees) with “empty suits”, people who just don’t participate and bring nothing to the table.

When reading this article from USV, I got to looking into it. Bethany Crystal at USV says maybe “the greatest value I brought to the table was me showing up.” Showing up and being ready. I was hoping there was more but this is what I found.

“Board members are ultimately responsible for the legal, fiduciary duty and best interest of the [org]..” from the Omaha Foundation. “Board members today are expected to sit on at least one (and usually more) committee’s, solicit their circle of influence for gifts, assist with implementing strategic plans and visions, perform executive director reviews and much more. Basically, it can become a second full-time job – especially for volunteers who assume leadership positions.” [via WSJ].

For non-profits, what is the role of the CEO or Executive Director? “Ultimately, to me, the success of the board is really dependent on two things. First, that the volunteer board leadership is an exemplary role model and holds their peers accountable. And second, that the executive director is assisting in managing the board and their needs. It only works harmoniously when both pieces are in alignment.” One is strategy; the other is execution.

By the way, Board Members can be held personally liable since each board member has a fiduciary responsibility. (Make certain the D&O insurance is paid in full!)

On corporate boards, “The board has a fiduciary duty with respect to the shareholders; that is, the board has financial and other responsibilities to keep the corporation running efficiently, so the shareholders don’t lose money.” [source]

“Specific duties of the board of directors and individual board members, committees, and officers are set by the corporate by-laws. The bylaws establish the specific duties of the board of directors and establish rules of procedure for the board.” The primary duties include Mission, Vision, Executive Oversight. (More detail HERE and THERE.)

Helping hire/find channel managers for clients is a challenge right now.  There is a lot of channel managers who have been “on the move” recently. There are others who have spent their career selling network. No offense but that doesn’t translate well to selling cloud services, including UCaaS.

What qualities do we look for in a channel manager candidate?

1. Attitude!  Always hire Attitude. You can train on product (and even on sales skills), but you can NOT train friendly, enthusiastic or positive attitude (maybe Norman Vincent Peale could).
2. Cultural Fit! I know this term is over-used, but you want someone who drinks the Kool-Aid. They want to join the company and they want to succeed and help the company succeed.
3. Today, having a Intellectual Curiosity is important. With the evolving technologies like IoT, SD-WAN, AI and more, you want someone with Curiosity (a thirst for knowledge) – or at least someone who is still excited about the industry.

You can train product and other stuff, but without the right attitude and curiosity it won’t go well. And without a cultural fit, it could be a disaster. So I look for those 3 qualities first and foremost.

There has always been a steady amount of people moving around in our industry but 2018 takes the cake. This year it was a frenzy of activity.

So what is the reason?

Some of it is the state of flux that the companies are in right now.  There is a significant volume of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) coupled with digital transformation. Each company is trying to right size its product portfolio for the new economic landscape.

Take Verizon for instance. Amid its 5G roadmap and M&A around Yahoo and AOL, it is now set to shed 10,400 jobs!

Many CLECs have re-branded including Bullseye, TPX and Nitel – and some personnel changes were made. Channel Managers in the last 18 months have especially been jumping around.

In the channel manager space, I get that much of that movement is due to Quota and Take Home Pay. There is also this view that the grass will be greener over at one of the other 2000 providers.

I have to wonder about the hiring process. It obviously needs improvement.

One big issue I see is that people hire their pals. The minute Mr X hits Company A, he starts bringing in his pals. I’ve written this before but it bears saying again: “You didn’t hit it out of the park before, why would you bring the team with you?”  The Yankees don’t hire a whole team; they hire A players to fill in a roster of A Players.

That’s a problem. So much of it is B or C players.

At least two clients put together an A Team in 2018. I watched another CLEC right-size itself by making good hires.

I have watched people get hired with a bunch of fanfare to flame out in less than a year.  Reading one press release today, it is the art of BS. You can almost put a clock on how long this person will have the job.

There is a cost to this.

It is very expensive to play musical chairs for a company. The cost of hiring and re-hiring is one thing. The expense and time of training an employee to get up to speed. The lost opportunity cost.

There is a toll of morale and the culture.  [This goes back to hiring. Are you hiring for a culture fit? Or are you just putting cogs into place? ]

The strategy of the provider suffers as well. Execution doesn’t happen.  These fits and starts don’t pay off.

At the channel manager level, it disrupts continuity, deals, relationships, partners – and revenue.

Hopefully, 2019 means that some of this will slow down, but I have a feeling it will be another year of manic musical chairs as providers that can’t execute will suffer.

As I have explained to clients and folks at a workshop this week: The Big Guys – AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum, CenturyLink and Comcast – are very busy with integrations, M&A, debt portfolio management, 5G, chasing Netflix, and more. This is your window to win market segments. You have a runway to win business. Don’t fuck it up!