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know a lot of other good people who may be candidates for higher level jobs in the company. They can be tapped for those connections and help you find some good people. 6. Connections to lenders, investors, and other financing sources. Once again, many experienced outside directors have been in the business world for a long time. They worked with banks, insurance companies, the SBA, and other sources of debt capital. Or maybe they had experience with private equity investors in the other companies they owned or worked with. And finally, maybe they themselves will want to invest in the company. This knowledge and these connections to capital sources can be invaluable. I write this as someone who has been an outside director himself on more than a dozen company boards and who still is in some cases. And some of the other outside directors I have worked with have been immensely helpful – far, far more than they cost – to companies in our industry. Isn’t it time you stopped procrastinating on this issue and start searching in earnest for some outside directors to help you be more successful? I think so! Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 5
ownership or negotiating leases, to company policy, to dealing with mergers and acquisitions – and much more. The outside directors’ experience can be invaluable. “I write this as someone who has been an outside director himself on more than a dozen company boards and who still is in some cases. And some of the other outside directors I have worked with have been immensely helpful to companies in our industry.” 4. Connections to clients and potential clients. Sometimes these directors may come directly out of client or potential client organizations and have the insider knowledge of how to win work with them. In other cases, they may know people who work in those clients and can help. I have personally witnessed this as an outside director on boards myself more than once where the outside director helped the AEC firm win work they never would have gotten otherwise. 5. Recruiting assistance. This is not commonly thought of as a benefit of outside directors but the fact is they probably
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THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 19, 2025, ISSUE 1586
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