The purpose of a board is to give advice, help solve problems, reinforce best practices. Important decisions are made at board meetings and proper planning is the key to a conducting a productive meeting. Business transcription agencies can provide you with an accurate account of the discussion from the audio/video recording of your board meeting, which is crucial for the decision-making process. You need to make good use of the limited time you have with the board. A good board deck can maximize the value of the meeting.
A collection of 10-20 slides, pitch decks should include everything that you want to communicate to your audience. While start-ups typically focus on creating pitch decks that will interest investors, brands use slides to boost interest in their services and generate more revenue. Here are some tips to create impressive board meeting slides for startups.
- Be specific about goals and deliverables: Outlined the project goals and list the processes or procedures that will need to be implemented to deliver a successful project, or the project deliverables. Someone has to be responsible for delivering every account point.
- Keep slides simple and use terminology that everyone understands: Slide design should be simple, presentable, clean and clear. Use bullet points to state topics for discussion. If you plan to use jargon or specific terminology, make sure your audience will it.
- Schedule more time for major issues: A blog published in nextviewventures.com recommends keeping 50% or more of meeting time for major issues that need in-depth discussion such as obstacles, priorities, or initiatives. Confine general updates to 20-30% of meeting time.
- Circulate the deck in advance: It’s important to send the deck 3-4 days in advance so that the Board is prepared. Sending one PDF file or Power Point presentation is a good idea as it will be easier to read. Use basic fonts that can be read easily. Include tough questions that participants can reflect on and come prepared to discuss. Including financials and KPIs will save valuable time at the meeting. Ask for feedback and incorporate the comments.
- Don’t read the deck like presentation: Your intelligent audience could comprise board members with actual operating experience as well as those with investor experience. It’s likely that they can read faster than you can talk, so don’t read the deck like a classroom discussion. Focus on discussing critical points.
- Use a template with a consistent format: Ensuring that the structure of the board deck is as consistent as possible, will allow for a continuous flow of information from meeting to meeting. An easy to follow format can be reviewed quickly at any time. Here is a comprehensive format for board deck structure:
- Introduction: title, data and logo
- Agenda/time allocation – approvals, commitments, overview, calibration, company building and focus sessions
- Key goal of the meeting – problems and how the board can help
- Approvals – list of approvals needed, with stress on specific approvals required
- Budget
- Company Update – milestones, financials, marketing, product, team
- Key Performance Indicators
- Key Financial Indicators
- Company Structure
- Lowlights – List the lows, don’t hide failures
- Hiring Plan/Pipeline
- Board Commitments
- Industry trends and competition
The Company Update should be the meat of your planned discussion. This slide, with the key discussion items, needs to be as concise as possible and the CEO should focus on it.
Keep board members in the loop prior to meetings. Ask each member if there is anything specific they would like to discuss. Also, get candid feedback from them after the meeting. Discuss important items with your executive team and cofounders in advance and settle any internal issues prior to the board meeting. Finally, be as transparent as possible with your employees about the discussion, especially strategic objectives. Relying on digital transcription agencies to document the proceedings of your board meetings will ensure that there is no ambiguity about the discussion. This is crucial for good decision making.
Board meeting slide templates are available online. But every business is different, so you should customize some slides to suit your needs.
