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FROM THE FOUNDER
I have been a big advocate of having outside directors on the BOD of your privately-held AEC firm for many years. This is especially true if you find people who have been more successful than you have in business and those who can help you win new work. Stop procrastinating on this issue and start searching in earnest for some outside directors to help you be more successful. More reasons to have outside directors
While I have written about it before, here are some good reasons to have two or three outsiders on your board that I may not have covered: 1. Mentoring for your CEO and other top managers. This may be the single most important benefit of having outside directors. Where else will you and your top managers go to get input from people with credibility? Sure, there are a bunch of executive coaches out there who are supposed to function as mentors, but how many of them have ever been in the top job before and really know what it’s like? The best outside directors make themselves available when needed to provide mentoring. 2. Accountability for the CEO. Oftentimes in our business, the CEO is either one of the founders or someone who has been there the longest and/
or has the largest ownership stake. They aren’t used to anyone asking them the tough questions that need to be asked, and in many cases, are truly unaccountable, especially if all the other BOD members are people who report to them in the functional organization. The outside BOD members can provide that honest input, however. 3. “Been there, done that” experience to avoid costly mistakes. Many times, the outside BOD members – besides having very successful careers and entrepreneurial backgrounds – are older and have wisdom that can only be acquired through experiences that the insiders may not have. This applies to so many different areas of the business – from dealing with problem employees, to liability issues, to building
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG, page 6
THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 19, 2025, ISSUE 1586
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