Recent Articles from Tracy Houston
Retire — or rewire?
For his whole career John built an arsenal of achievements that did not end once he became a C-suite executive. His success was noted in a number of ways. But then he decided to retire.
Board member wanted:
The progressive boardroom moves the needle away from operating in a vacuum with targeted board recruitment for the 21st century. While turbulence is not new, its nature and degree present an ever-increasing need for executive-level acumen to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate risks in the ever-more-sophisticated business environment. According to Spencer Stuart, about one-third of […]
From rubber stamp to strategy asset
Do you mine the collective intelligence of your board? In today’s world, corporations are establishing processes that have an emphasis on collective wisdom for competitive advantage. This concept can be actualized at the board level through the board evaluation process. A recent study by PwC foun...
Board scrutiny: Everybody’s doing it
Today, there is an increased level of acceptance and sophistication in board evaluation. However, the evaluation techniques are still in their infancy. I foresee that this acceptance will continue. You may ask why. My observation is that the driving forces are based in the heightened regulatory en...
Reading for the plane
Here's some reading to take along on your next businss trip: Take Command Lessons in Leadership: How to Be a First Responder in Business by Jake Wood. The founder and CEO of Team Rubicon and an ex-Marine sniper applies lessons in leadership and teamwork from the disaster zone and battlefield to sh...
Changes in the boardroom
ecent research conducted by OpenMatters with Deloitte & Touche examined 40 years of data from the Standard & Poor's 500 index and revealed that digital technologies are disrupting existing business models and their underlying sources of value. The research finds that investors assign higher valuat...
The risks and benefits of board bias
Board members, like other people, have hidden biases. They might include weighing older director voices more than those of younger members, or vice versa. Board leadership, such as board or committee chair, needs to identify whether unconscious bias has crept into their own thought processes and the board’s deliberations. Everyone has blind spots and can […]
A board’s impact on the Affordable Care Act rollout
The all too human traits that lead to the damaging scenario described here happen every day in businesses. It can be major technology implementations or other major projects that follow the same pattern. It likely describes well what happened within the Obama administration leading up to the ACA...
The tech-savvy board
Growth is the cornerstone of corporate strategy. It is imperative for Boards of Directors to work collaboratively as a team to bring all strategic growth opportunities to the table. In today’s rapidly changing world, where growth is intimately linked with technology with technology enabled growth the norm versus the exception, the BOD team needs technology […]
The engaged employee
Employee engagement is the next competitive advantage. To leverage human capital, directors need to ask management for leading indicators of the business. Continuous improvement processes and operational excellence helped companies achieve higher levels of performance, but they involve only a frac...
Strategic assumptions
One of the most daunting tasks leaders face is getting the corporate strategy right. One aspect of developing an effective corporate strategy is acknowledging that assumptions are being made in the development of the strategy. What often happens is that strategic assumptions are rarely clearly do...
Board evals: Getting it right
In a noted move towards corporate transparency, a recent study group of public company directors and a few academics identified seven gaps on their own board room turf: purpose, culture, leadership, information, advice, debate and self-renewal. The report goes on to state boards should “develop policies and practices to ensure ongoing evaluation and education of […]