What a board wants from a strategy review

Most strategy packs are written to show how much work went into them. Boards want something else: a clear view of the choice in front of them and enough evidence to make it in one meeting.

Start with the ask

Put the decision you need on the first page, in one sentence. Approve the move into Germany. Fund the new product line. Hold prices for another year. Everything after that page is there to support that sentence.

Add what happens if the board says no. A decision is easier to make when the cost of waiting is written down next to the cost of acting.

Show two or three options, not seven

Boards distrust a single option, and they can’t weigh seven. Two or three real options, each with its cost, its risk and what you would stop doing to pay for it, give them something to compare.

• One option should stay close to what you do today.

• Every option gets the same numbers, in the same order.

• Say which one you recommend and why.

Use numbers the board already trusts

If the finance director sees a figure for the first time in the meeting, expect the first half hour to be spent on it. Agree the base numbers with finance a week ahead and use them everywhere in the pack.

Where you have to estimate, say so, show the range and explain where the estimate comes from. Boards accept uncertainty. What they don’t accept is a confident number that turns out to have been a guess.

Keep it short

Ten pages is enough for most decisions, with an appendix for anyone who wants the detail. Send it five working days before the meeting and offer each board member a 20-minute call to walk through it. Most questions get answered there, and the meeting itself goes to the decision.

Plan the follow-up

End the pack with what happens after a yes: the first three steps, who owns them and when the board will hear about progress. It shows the plan is ready to run, and it gives the board a date to hold you to.