Webinar

Getting your board and exec to say yes.

Boards and exec teams do not buy platforms. They buy outcomes, and they manage the risk of getting there. Watch the session, then take the maps.

Daniel Howell CEO and Founder, GravityLab
Toni Laming Board member and executive
01
Understanding

The board and exec are a useful part of your team.

Treated as an approval hurdle, they slow you down. Treated as part of the team, they bring expert guidance, coaching, contacts and reference calls you would not get anywhere else. They also carry personal accountability for the decision, so scepticism is the job, not an attitude problem.

What they are thinking

  • Is this the best use of funds?
  • Can we actually deliver this?
  • What happens if it fails?
  • What could go wrong, and when do we step in?
  • How am I accountable, and how will I look?

What they need from you

  • Translation, not technical detail
  • Honest numbers and real options
  • Someone to close the expertise gap
  • Early warning and assurance
  • A proper options analysis

Frame the work as a technology cost and you get a cost conversation. Frame it as mission infrastructure and you get a strategy conversation.

02
The journey

The board journey map.

Show your board this process and get their buy-in. It is the fastest way to agree how they want to be involved, before anyone argues about a platform.

This is how people are treating their board

Most projects

The board is responsible for strategic direction and hears nothing until step eight. By then the decision is already made, so all they can do is push back on the parts they can see. You get the approval. You do not get the support.

Board journey map
Typical case. Ignore the board, then ask for a rubber stamp.
1

Idea

2

Case for change

3

Approach / plan

4

Requirements

5

Market scan

6

Demos / validate

7

Select

8

Recommend

9

Board approval

10

Ongoing

Frustrated
Ignored (responsible for strategic direction)
Overwhelmed
Worried
Sceptical

This is how you can partner with your board

The better run

Recruit a sponsor early, use a subcommittee, run a pre-mortem, and socialise the thinking in stages. Every red stage below is a point where the board or the exec is in the room. By the approval meeting they are not being sold to, they are confirming something they helped build.

Board journey map
Partner with the board. Sponsor, subcommittee, pre-mortem, stage gates.
1

Idea

2

Case for change

3

Approach / plan

4

Requirements

5

Market scan

6

Demos / validate

7

Options

8

Recommend

9

Board approval

10

Steering group

11

Stage gates

Curious
Impressed
Reassured
Engaged
Reassured
Buyers remorse
03
Case for change

Five reasons that get a board and an exec's attention.

Any one of these is enough for a board to take the conversation seriously. Put all five in the paper and let different people around the table pick the one they care about. People move on pain long before they move on aspiration.

01

Strategy

Can you actually achieve your strategy?

If the five year goals cannot be hit with the current systems and ways of working, then we change the goal or change the systems.

02

Employees and culture

Keeping your best people. The person who knows how it all works is a single point of failure, and the knowledge leaves when they do.

Good people get worn down by manual work and by looking incompetent in front of customers.

03

Customers

No shared record, no status visibility, no acknowledgement. They repeat their story every time they call.

Ask where the pain is. Can we retain them, and can we grow?

04

New opportunity

You cannot serve a market you cannot reach, and the current setup caps volume, reach and speed.

What is the competition already doing that you cannot?

05

Business benefits

Name the KPIs that move and say when the return breaks even.

Be honest where the attribution is soft. That honesty is what builds the partnership.

04
The ask

What the board needs to say yes.

A decision paper, not a technology pitch. Written for people who will never open the demo, and who need enough to make the call without a briefing from you.

01
The case for change
Framed in mission and strategy terms, with the five reasons behind it.
02
An options appraisal
Do nothing, optimise what you already have, or replace it. Platform choice sits inside the third option, not instead of it.
03
A benefits register with owners
Every benefit has a name against it and a date it gets measured. Say plainly where you are unsure.
04
Costs, financial and not
Multi year and by quarter, with contingency stated. Include internal staff time and opportunity cost, which is the part most papers leave out.
05
Team capacity and capability to deliver
Who is doing this alongside their day job, what you are backfilling, and where you are buying in skills you do not have. Boards worry about delivery more than they worry about the platform.
06
Risks and mitigations
Selection risk, delivery risk, delivered risk and vendor risk, each with a named mitigation.
07
A plan with phasing and gates
Governance, decision points and funding released in tranches, so the board keeps control of the money after the yes.
08
Appendices, ready but separate
The detail sits behind the paper for the person who wants to go deep, without slowing the decision for everyone else.

Risks not to leave out.

If you do not raise these, someone at the table will. Better that it comes from you, with the mitigation already attached.

Identified risks

  • Data migration
  • Over customisation and the long term maintenance that comes with it
  • Culture and buy-in under-investment in change
  • Budget and scope not controlled
  • Benefits validation
  • Future capabilities

Recommended mitigants

Data assessment early

Set a trust baseline and plan the cleansing from day one.

Change management

Name a dedicated leader to align teams and carry the transition risk.

Options: copy others

Use proven market standards instead of starting from scratch.

Stage gating

Divide budget and scope into phases the board can review and stop.

Technical validation

Run proper proofs of concept to verify the platform does what the vendor says.

Pre-mortems

Find the failure points before kickoff and put an owner against each one.

05
After the yes

How to report to your board.

Approval is the start of the relationship. Board oversight works better through stage gated governance and steady reporting than through one capital decision and silence.

Format and consistency

  • One pageCritical information at a glance. If it needs two pages, the second one is an appendix.
  • Same format every timeSo they can compare against last quarter without relearning the layout.
  • Trends and metricsMeasure the same way each time, or the trend line means nothing.

Focus and transparency

  • Exceptions and decisionsDo not show everything. Show what needs attention and what you need decided.
  • Real risksSay what has genuinely changed and what it means for cost, scope or date.
  • Do not be all greenA report that is green every quarter stops being read. Honesty about blockages buys you goodwill when you need it.

Ready to respond

  • Escalation tolerances agreed up frontEveryone knows the threshold that triggers a conversation before it is crossed.
  • Appendices readyHave the underlying data prepared for the one person who wants the deep dive.
  • Ask for feedbackCheck the format works for them. Treat the board as part of the team.
Track the benefits into years two and three. Most organisations stop reporting the moment the project closes, which is exactly when the board is deciding whether to trust the next business case.

Ready to get started?

Get in touch now

"*" indicates required fields