Structuring effective board meetings: A blueprint for creative agencies

Wadds Inc. supports creative agencies with company direction and differentiated propositions. In the last of this three-part series, we look at board meetings – how these should work and when they should take place.

Busy creative agency owners have many competing priorities, and sometimes, regular board meetings can be the (wrong) thing to drop off the list.

Those new to the board might need to learn what a good schedule and plan looks like.

While each board must find its approach and rhythm, the Institute of Director’s suggests there should be four to twelve a year, lasting between two to four hours. A good timetable could look like the following:

Monthly 

-       Review of year-to-date financial performance against budget

-       Report from the financial director on the company’s cash position

-       Top line operational report from MD

-       Current trading position from the business development director

-       Review of the risk register

Quarterly

-       One-by-one divisional review

-       Review of the HR, marketing, R&D and production functions

-       Review of any subsidiaries - or for creative agencies a review of associations or partnership agreements

-       Reporting from any board committees

Bi-annually 

-       Review of any HR and health and safety issues

-       Performance against long-terms plans (as opposed to budget), checking whether policies, objectives and strategies are on track

-       Possible formal re-budgeting

Annually

-       Decision-making around policies, objectives and strategies

-       Approvals of the forthcoming annual budget

-       Annual performance review

-       Annual board review and election/re-election of chair

-       MD/CEO’s annual performance review

-       Assessment of senior staff performance

-       Annual review of the board’s reserved powers

-       Annual review of bribery policies

Any matters for the board should be addressed through a paper added to the agenda. The paper should include an executive summary, background, recommendations, strategic and financial implications, risk analysis, corporate governance compliance, and responsible person(s).

Ultimately, good corporate governance improves company performance, helping to manage risk, build resilience, increase trust with finance providers and take advantage of commercial opportunities.

If any of this resonates and you’d like professional advisory support to help structure your business and achieve your growth plans, please email sarah.waddington@wadds.co.uk or stephen.waddington@wadds.co.uk, and we’ll be happy to help.