Board appointments require careful consideration and preparation. Here’s how IT leaders from Procter & Gamble, Biogen and Google Ventures secured their seats.
CIOs who strive to be board members must be able to communicate with senior executives and rapidly analyze balance sheets, 10-K filings and other financial documents. But there is much more to serving on a board than showing up for meetings and discussing corporate strategies. Board membership requires CIOs to build rapports with senior managers, which they say helps them become better leaders at their own companies
That was the gist of a Forbes CIO Summit panel Monday in Half Moon Bay, Calif., where roughly 100 CIOs met to discuss digital transformations, the evolution of the CIO role and several other pertinent topics. Linda Clement-Holmes, Procter & Gamble CIO; Andi Karaboutis, Biogen executive vice president of technology operations; and Stephen Gillett, former Starbucks CIO and Symantec COO and current Google Ventures resident, discussed how they landed their board seats and offered some advice to CIOs who wish to occupy a board seat.
Not too cool for school. To better prepare for her board seats at Advanced Auto Parts and Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts (BCBS), Karaboutis took classes in accounting, paired assets and financial management at Harvard University. She also took a biology class to prepare for her role at Biogen, which makes drugs that fight neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, hemophilia and autoimmune diseases. “You figure out where your gaps are and then you go for it,” says Karaboutis, who worked as the CIO of Dell before joining Biogen in 2014. She adds that CIOs are better positioned than any other executive to have a unique of the breadth of operations across the entire company.
Getting the board seat: Karaboutis says that while she didn’t actively lobby to be a board member, being a known quantity with a broad network of IT and business leaders helps immensely. She also made sure her LinkedIn profile was professionally curated, citing the breadth of her experience, including past roles and membership in organizations such as the Women in Technology and Michigan Council of Women in Technology. “A lot of people don’t know how important that is,” she says. That networking and awareness doesn’t end once you land the seat. Once installed on her boards, she made sure to know all of the biggest investors and stakeholders in those organizations. “Widen the aperture, take that all in and note all of your constituents,” she says.
Joining a board makes you a better leader. Karaboutis says CIOs actually benefit their own companies by bringing what they learn from board appointments to bear in their day jobs. She says she is learning a lot from the CIOs of Advanced Auto Parts and BCBS because she gets to hear how they select CISOs, shed legacy technology and become more nimble. “While you all may think that you can’t take the time away, you’re actually bringing something back,” she says. “In some ways, it might be a little selfish to not do an extra mile and bring that back.”
Don’t commit if you can’t handle the work. While joining a board can be beneficial, it’s not a leisurely exercise. “For people that say ‘you go to four board meetings a year and you get how much [money]’? — guess again,” Karaboutis says of participating on boards. “It is a ton of work.” And also a ton of time and travel. Karaboutis, who is based in Massachusetts (Biogen is in Cambridge), says she has to fly to Tampa this Friday to interview a candidate for critical position at Advanced Auto Parts. Then she flies back Sunday for her day job. “If you take it on, you have to be committed,” she says.
Board appointments in your own backyard. Clement-Holmes has a markedly different experience as a board member for insurance carrier Cincinnati Financial Corporation. The company is a 20-minute commute from her home and her P&G office is also in Cincinnati. Like Karaboutis, though, Clement-Holmes has to immerse herself in the business, learning about the insurance sector, regulations that govern it, as well as how to grasp the 10-Ks and other investor-relations materials.
Go big or go home. Clement-Holmes echoed Karaboutis’ sentiments on commitment to boards, noting that CIOs shouldn’t take the role lightly. “You have a real responsibility to shareholders and employees. If a board gets sued, you as a board member play a role.” She and Karaboutis each had to purchase insurance policies to indemnify them in the event they are sued.
Nose in, hands out. Clement-Holmes says CIOs who want to join boards must quickly learn that their role is governance and advice, rather than hands-on operations, with which they are accustomed to performing in their full-time jobs. “You role on the board is to govern, not to do the work,” Clement-Holmes says. “That’s not your job. Nose in, hands out.” She says this provides a nice change of pace from her day job, where she is constantly managing.
Vetting can be strenuous. Board members play such crucial roles in corporate governance that just joining one can take years, says Gillett. Such was the case with his appointment to Chipotle’s board, for which he says founder Steve Ells groomed him for years before he joined in 2015. “The board recruitment cycle is years in advance,” Gillett says.
Board directors love digital transformations. Gillett says Ells and Chipotle’s board valued his experience building out Starbucks’ digital capabilities because the fresh Mexican purveyor is bolstering its own digital presence, including mobile payment software, a loyalty rewards program and IT expansion.
Dynamics matter. Gillett says cultural fit and strong personal relationships with board members is essential for any new board member. He says that before he agreed to join Chipotle’s board he met extensively with the management team and interviewed them. Sometimes this process may reveal that neither the CIO nor the board is the right cultural fit. “Don’t just accept the first board position you get offered,” he says. “Make sure you’re in an environment where you get along with [the board].”
