What are the key success factors for boards? Interview with professor Andrew Kakabadse
Professor Andrew Kakabadse visited Helsinki to give a keynote at Henley Master Class at UPM. During his visit, we interviewed him about the his views and ideas on value creating boards.
Some of the key points from the interview:
- Understanding competitive advantage is central for the board in order to realize their full potential in value creation. Having a powerful mission helps in aligning the board on competitive advantage.
- If you want to get good boards, train and invest in them. Unfortunately, there is no one best practice for this – only very good benchmarks.
- Moreover, in value creation, the chairman is the most important person. Qualities of an excellent chairman include intellectual cleverness, political skills, and resilience.
- Network behind the scenes is a key driver for Finnish boards. This can be either good or bad thing. The deal breaker is if the board is able to address the sensitive issues that may and will arise.
