This 90-minute interactive workshop, conducted online in English, offers advanced education for board members.
The role of the board is to make a company as successful as it can possibly be. In pursuing this goal, the board must make a number of difficult decisions, navigating an uncertain environment and a complex legal framework.
This workshop is designed to expand on the core curriculum of the Startup Board Academy and advise board members on the key decisions they will have to make and the complexity they will have to sort through to achieve the desired results.
Introduction – Reminder of the roles of the company’s bodies
Role of the shareholders
- Company direction and purpose
- Board elections
- Structural changes approval
Role of the directors
- Governing and control of the company
- Strategy and financials
- Duty of care
Role of the management
- Operational decisions, policies and documentation
- Duty of information
Key board and shareholder decisions
- Utilizing Shareholders Agreements and Organisation Rules to guide decision-making processes and guarantee their validity
- Understanding decision requirements and implications (voting rights, majority requirements, and veto rights)
- Splitting responsibilities between the different company entities – decision matrix templates
Key board processes
Strategy
- “Navigating the fog”: the intricacies of decision-making with limited data
- Managing incentives and overall stakeholder motivation
- Ensuring attractiveness to future investors
- Keeping the exit in mind
- Finding the right balance between flexibility and long-term vision
- Accounting for the different phases of the startup’s development
- Conducting strategy meetings: frequency, preparation, and external guests; documenting key decisions
Risk
- Board organization for risk prevention
- Risk identification, reporting, and monitoring
- Risk types and drivers
- Risk monitoring and prevention systems
Financials
- Understand the wider financials context (strategy, business model, milestones and KPIs, risk sensitivity, and financial statements)
- Examples of processes that allow to involve all relevant company bodies
Fundraising
- Financing types, needs, frequency and timing
- The role of the board in ensuring smooth, quick and efficient fundraising
- Summary of the fundraising rounds steps and advice on the go-no go factors
Exit
- Types of exit
- Board considerations for an exit (proactivity, process and timing, interests of the company vs of the shareholders, and relevant questions)
- Actionable steps for a failed exit
The workshop allows for an excellent opportunity for current board members to discuss specific challenges and benefit from each other’s experience and insights into how to make good board decisions.
Workshop duration
1.5 hours.
Workshop format
Video conference.
Pricing
- External participant: CHF 150
- Board Academy Alumni: CHF 130
15% discount on booking three or more workshops.
Trainers: Virginie Verdon et Brigitte Baumann.
