Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)

by Salim Ismail

A firm called Advisory Board Architects (ABA) presents a fascinating example of how to take the Staff-on-Demand concept to a whole new level. ABA noticed two issues with company boards: First, as Jaime Grego-Mayer, a partner at ABA, notes, “95 percent of all boards are simply not managed,” since most of a CEO’s attention goes to managing the company. Second, removing a non-performing board member can be a delicate and political matter; because it’s embarrassing for the CEO, it usually doesn’t happen. ABA offers companies a human resources department for boards, allowing CEOs to outsource the management and tracking of the company board to the firm. ABA establishes metrics for each board member (for example, three phone calls per month to open doors) and then tracks those metrics. If a board member is not performing, and a difficult conversation is needed to push that member out, ABA handles it, relieving pressure on the CEO.