Want to Meet One of My Board Members? (posted by Oliver Nyumbu)
Posted by Oliver Nyumbu
January 8th, 2007
I do have wonderful Board Members. True, they are a bit of a captive audience but they are great. No, I am not referring to Caret’s Board members with whom I meet every month and to whom I am accountable. They too are truly fantastic and a delight to work with: they are sharp, witty, intelligent, demanding, and great fun. The Board members to whom I refer are different however.
They are not Caret’s formal Board but my personal virtual Board. This Board has two key roles in my professional life: (1) to keep me out of trouble, and (2) to help me reflect on how to practically make the best possible use of what few talents I possess. How do they do this work? Through their writing and what has been written about them.
One member of my personal board (they can’t say no to being on the board) is Andy Grove who was a co-founder of Intel. Commenting on Grove, Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer Inc.) says, “Andy is extremely smart and he as a real mischievous streak in him. He’s looking for trouble, and that’s really good. That fuels his curiosity, his insatiable desire to understand things at a deeper level.”
In the 2006 book Andy Grove, Richard Tedlow cites three lessons Grove learned from the difficulties Intel’s leadership faced when needing to exit the memory market:
- For Grove, the whole memory episode reinforced in his mind the importance of middle management.
- In Grove’s words, “It is always easier to start something than to kill something.” Therefore, you better be very careful what you start.
- When your failure has been of the noble variety rather than the result of stupid mistakes, you as the top manager have to figure out a way to keep the talent that was involved in the unavoidable failure in the company.
One of the things I like about Grove is that he questions everything and is passionate about turning ideas into action. Who is on your personal Board and how might you make even better use of them?
[1] Richard Tedlow (2006:215-216), Andy Grove . Portfolio
January 9th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Like Andy Grove, I too, am passionate about turning ideas into action. The comments above made me think of who I turn to as my personal board.They help me to consolidate my creative thoughts and refine them to good use.. Interesting thought as I recognise three people who I regularly contact and, they keep me in their radar as well. Thanks for the thoughts!!