Benefits of Conducting a National (International) Search for a New Board Member
Look around your board room at the next meeting and think about where your board members are located. If they all live within 50 or 100 miles from you business you are most like missing something.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does your company do business outside of the 50-100 mile radius?
- Do you have suppliers outside of the 50-100 mile radius?
- Do you have offices/facilities outside of the 50-100 mile radius?
- Do you plan on expanding to new markets?
If you have said “yes” to any of the above questions, then you should consider hiring board members from outside your neighborhood.
In just the US alone the cultural and business practices vary greatly across the country. The board needs to have some geographical diversity as part of the everyday discussion.
Some advantages that occur when you do a nationwide search for a new board member are:
- Regional knowledge of local business practices. This is in respect to obtaining new customers or building a new facility and staffing it, etc.
- Regional presence for your company in those communities.
- Economic perspective on the business climate.
- New and different thought processes while not being from the HQ region.
Many companies today are increasing their reliance on international business. Choosing a board member from South America or Southeast Asia would be invaluable with your international expansion plans. The board member can save the company a lot of time and business challenges with their local knowledge.
Doing a search for a board member outside of your home turf can be a challenge and should be done by a professional board recruitment company. Cardinal Board Services finds the candidates in a timely and efficient manner to reach your goals.