July 23 at 430PM -- Governance and Decision Rights  OR... Board Communications and Rapport

The discussion will cover Board Communications and Rapport. A PE board is not an audience.

It is not a reporting body. It is not a committee that needs to be satisfied with the completeness of management's work.

It is a group of experienced investors and operators who have limited time, concentrated stakes, and a clear investment thesis against which they are measuring every conversation they have with management. They are not there to be educated. They are there to decide, advise, and assess.The CEO who manages the board like a reporting obligation — showing up prepared, presenting competently, answering questions professionally, and leaving — has treated the board meeting as a transaction. This is not sustainable behavior.

The board experiences it as a relationship in which management is not particularly interested in their perspective. Over time, the board stops asking the hard questions. Not because they trust the answers. Because they've concluded the operator isn't going to engage with them anyway.

Most operators arrive at their first PE board meeting in one of two postures — and both are wrong. Come learn what they are, and learn about the third option, which is much better.