Test Yourself

The following are a series of test questions which simply have the answers yes or no. These will not, however, be simple questions and few of the answers may be proved categorically to be the right one or the wrong one. This is part of the challenge and attraction of being a director in a boardroom environment. The suggested answers and the scoring system immediately follows the next section together with some comments as to the intent of the questions.

The Questions

1. Are you prepared to resign at a moment’s notice without compensation if you disagree fundamentally with board policy?
2. Would you accept responsibility, with your colleagues, for any consequential impact of the activities of your organisation?
3. Would you trust your colleagues totally and implicitly in terms of their fidelity, judgement, and political motivation?
4. If you are not a finance specialist, would you be prepared to disagree with the Finance Director over the Annual Report and Accounts if you felt that, say, contingent liabilities had not been properly evaluated, exposed, and provided for?
5. Would you be prepared to withdraw, gracefully, an application for a particular capital expenditure that you have sponsored, if the collective view of your boardroom colleagues is that other programmes, at this time, should get priority?
6. Would you feel a responsibility to investigate charges levelled by environmentalists that your organisation is, say, causing neighbourhood distress through its night time delivery activities?
7. Would you be prepared to turn down work if you felt that your ability, as an organisation, to deliver a proper service was not up to your standards of performance in other areas?
8. Would you be prepared to set aside your concerns about an issue if you were encouraged to do so by the Chairman in the cause of wider board harmony?
9. Would you throw your weight behind a proposal where your natural position is neutral-to-unfavourably disposed if in doing so you could secure support for another of your own favoured proposals?
10. Can you identify the context of your likely responsibilities on the board in terms of the organisation and its prevailing culture?
11. Are you comfortable with your likely role, its implied commitment, and the type of contribution it is likely to demand from you?
12. Could you justify why profitability might always prevail as a measure over social or environmental issues within a business?
13. Could you reconcile a lifestyle on business expenses which you choose not to maintain in your private life?
14. Would you know from where you might draw your greatest support in the boardroom and would you know where your positions might be more actively challenged?
15. Do you always attempt to establish how different parties might vote on issues before coming to your own conclusions or before being tested on your views?
16. Do you consider a position on the board to be, mostly, a recognition of good service by a respected senior executive?
17. Should the roles of chairman and chief executive be combined when an outstanding single leader emerges or when there is an absence of even an adequate candidate for one of the positions?
18. If a business is dominated by one particular division or function, should the head of that entity have an automatic right of appointment to the board?
19. Is profitability more of a measure of business success than a long track record for successful product development?
20. Do you believe that people perform better under close supervision and direction rather that when they are left alone to work within a looser framework?
21. Do you subscribe to the view that “all is fair in love, war, and business, provided it is legal” in getting your own views to prevail?
22. When you are the most senior person in a group charged with making a decision, do you prefer to put forward your views first?
23. Would you run your accounts payable to 120 days-of-sales if you could prevail on your suppliers to agree?
24. Do you believe that environmental problems are the sole responsibility of the community and not that of the businessman?
25. Do you believe that taxation should be the primary mechanism for funding public infrastructure programmes?
26. Are you comfortable with the notion that professionals may enjoy privileges that non-professionals may be denied?
27. Could you identify the areas where you might add value to your organisation through the membership of your board?
28. Do you have a vision for your organisation which you like to share with others at every opportunity to do so?
29. Do you believe in the tenet “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”?
30. Are you prepared to change your position in the light of new evidence or a more compelling argument?
31. Are you prepared to spend time again as a pupil to become more proficient in new business practices or skills outside your own field of experience?
32. Are you able to establish, independently, the liquidity position of your organisation and, hence, its solvency?
33. Do you know how price sensitive announcements should be made to the public?
34. Do you know what should happen if your company plans to acquire stock in another public company that will take its holding to over 29%?
35. Do you see board meetings as rubber-stamping exercises to give authority to operational decisions that have already been taken?
36. Do you prefer to signal your positions on key issues without prior notice at meetings on the grounds that this will produce a more spontaneous discussion and less political posturing?
37. Do you believe that boards should probably always seek a consensus, which the chairman can easily articulate, rather than resort to voting, which might prove divisive?

The Answers and their Scores

The answers offered are the ones preferred by the authors. They may have other merits, too. For the preferred answer three points may be awarded, but for the alternative only one point may be scored.

Interpreting the Scores

The maximum score in this test is 111 and the minimum is 37. If you scored between 37 and 60 you should challenge all your natural instincts before embarking on a programme of preparation. Do not be put off. Most people can make it as competent directors as all objective points of view have a relevance in the boardroom and common sense is a directors’ greatest attribute.

If you score between 61 and 84 you should have many of the basic requirements in place and good preparation will do the rest.

If you scored between 85 and 111 you probably have similar values and perspectives to the authors. Beware! We, too, are still learning and do not fall into the trap of complacency. You will still be surprised, ambushed, and worked-over by your new boardroom colleagues. Prepare well and enjoy the prospect of being in a position to make a difference.