What is a virtual board?

CBASS Blog – October 2024

What is a virtual board?

When the global pandemic in 2020 sent everyone home from work, we adapted and discovered new ways to meet and stay in touch online, both personally and professionally. The platforms we turned to already existed but had never been as necessary as when we were unable to meet face to face. Cue the international prevalence of virtual meetings. Thanks to COVID-19, we have all heard of online conferences, Zoom, Teams, virtual classes, online networking and virtual board meetings. In fact, the interceding years have shown us that we can collaborate with, learn from and work with people pretty much anywhere.

The way we work has irrevocably evolved and many of us now work remotely, or have adopted hybrid working practices, and use online meetings to save time and resources, so why not utilise a virtual board too?

A virtual board works in much the same way as a traditional board. It is a committee made up of directors who represent the interests of stakeholders and/or shareholders and are there to guide and advise on a businesses operations. Each board member will have a specialism and will bring their own expertise and experience to their role, for the benefit of the organisation they support.

Types of virtual board

Whereas a traditional board of directors can function in several different ways, a virtual board of directors is most commonly formed as an advisory board of directors.

A virtual advisory board of directors is made up of professionals who use their knowledge and skills to advise organisations, but do not have any decision-making capabilities. Other types of boards include executive boards, managing boards and governing boards, who have the power to make and implement decisions on behalf of the business. As a virtual board will be a remote group of directors, it is unlikely that they will have roles within the business they are serving in addition to their roles as directors.

How to find a virtual board

The team at CBASS started out as a group of like-minded professionals who wanted to change the face of business consultancy. With each founding member bringing unique expertise to the group, it quickly became apparent that the collective skills and experience we possess could benefit a wide range of businesses from startups and SMEs to much larger, established businesses. Traditional boards of directors, especially in rural counties, can be made up of directors who are more intent on serving their own interests over the interests of the business they are supposed to be advising. By engaging a virtual board to collaborate with your business, you are harnessing the skills of a multi-talented group who will objectively and strategically work on behalf of your business. This way of working is very new and forward-thinking so trying to find the right virtual board for your business will take some careful research, however this is something that CBASS can support you with.

Who sits on a virtual board

A board of directors may usually have a chairperson and/or a president or vice chair, a secretary, a treasurer, and a mixture of executive directors and potentially non-executive directors, depending on the type of board it is and the function it performs.

A virtual board is a little different in that whilst there will still be a virtual chair who coordinates the meetings and acts as the main point of contact between the board and the organisation, the rest of the board will be non-executive directors, that is board members who are not employed by the business to whom they are advising. Let’s take a look at what each appointed role involves.

Virtual chairperson

The chair of the board, chairperson, chairman or president will be the person who chairs or leads the virtual board meeting. They are usually appointed to this role by their fellow directors for a set term. This person will have strong organisational skills, be a good mentor, have their own relevant expertise and will act as the liaison between the board members and represent the board as a whole during interactions with the business they are serving.

Virtual vice chairperson

The vice chair will carry out much the same role of the chair and act in the absence of the chair, communicating with board members and the business as required.

Non-executive directors

A virtual board will typically be made up of non-executive directors. A non-executive director, often shortened to NED, is a board member who does not work within the business but instead provides strategic advice using their in-depth knowledge and expertise. They tend to be specialists within their own fields and draw on a wealth of experience to independently advise the stakeholders, shareholders and the executive board, if there is one.

Non-executive directors typically volunteer their time as they have a passion for their field and enjoy sharing their knowledge for the betterment of the industries they collaborate with. NEDs are usually successful professionals who may or may not be entrepreneurs themselves but will have a good understanding of the business and industry they support.

The benefit of having a virtual board made up of non-executive directors is that they tend to be more objective than executive directors, drawing on their collective skills to support the business they serve in a more holistic way.

Benefits of a virtual board

Having an advisory board which is wholly virtual can be hugely beneficial to businesses of all sizes, types and stages. An organisation that doesn’t have a board of directors already but requires one will need to spend precious time and valuable resources, researching, recruiting and implementing a board, which might be a barrier to getting the support and strategic advice needed for a business to thrive. Here are some more reasons why inviting a virtual advisory board to collaborate with your business could be the difference between success and stagnation.

• Collaboration

Collaboration is key for any business. A business can’t thrive in isolation. It needs nurturing, investments of time, care, attention, expertise. Collaborating with specialists who have skills that you lack or knowledge you can’t acquire and experience that you don’t, will enable a business to find opportunities that may well be illusive without the assistance of others. Building a varied network of reliable experts around you that complement your own skills is a valuable asset to have.

• Accessible and inclusive

The very nature of a virtual board who holds virtual board meetings means you can benefit from the knowledge of professionals who may not be able to access your business in person for a variety of reasons. The benefit of an exclusively online board opens up the possibility of working with a much wide range of experts that you may not have been able to appeal to otherwise.

• Flexible

The concept of a 9-5 business these days is archaic and the ability to work when its convenient and from more or less anywhere you can set up your device is important to modern business owners. A virtual board operates with the same flexibility that you want for yourself. The ability to hold meetings from anywhere, at mutually convenient times that fit around family life, work engagements, business meetings and social events is appealing and opens up the opportunities for collaboration outside of traditional working hours.

• Save money

Depending on how you have been operating board meetings in the past, working with a virtual board may well save you money. With no need to pay for board rooms, meeting places, refreshments, travel and other expenses, online board meetings are a cost-saving blessing.

• Save time

It takes time to travel to a board meeting, time to catch up at the beginning, there is always lots of social chat, none of which is necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re time-poor then all of this is dispensed with when you have a virtual board. Your board members can access the meeting from wherever they are, you can dictate the time allowed for your meeting and set the agenda in advance by email, all of which is less draining on your potentially already limited time.

• Save resource

The amount of administration involved in a traditional board meeting, paperwork, handouts, minutes and so on can be negated with virtual board meetings. There is a variety of software solutions that will help you run your board meetings efficiently, record meetings, take minutes and allocate action points. These programs take much of the administrative burden out of meetings, saving you valuable resource which can be put to better use elsewhere.

• Increased productivity

Without the in-person element of a face to face board meeting, your meetings with invariably be more productive and efficient. The whole objective of a virtual board is to strategically assist a business towards their goals and beyond. Choosing the right virtual board therefore will mean that no time, money or resource is wasted, your meetings will be run efficiently and to plan, and the expertise that they impart will be useful, relevant and bespoke. When used correctly by the business in question, the wider access to professional resource through working with a virtual board should lead to increased productivity both within and following your board meetings.

Potential drawbacks of a virtual board

It would be remiss to not comment on the cons of forsaking a physical board of directors in favour of a virtual board.

• Reliant on tech

A virtual board will usually hold a virtual meeting, as you’d expect. Online meetings rely on internet connections, hardware such as mobile phones, tablets and computers, as well as the software needed to host and administrate the meeting. As soon as any one of these fail the meeting is disrupted. The reliance on technology to work with a virtual board usually saves time, money and resources, but when it goes wrong, it can be frustrating and hard to get back on track.

• Harder to build rapport

As with any online meeting or virtual collaboration, it can be harder to build rapport with others when you’re not face to face. When we communicate, we don’t just give off verbal signals our behaviours and mannerisms influence our interactions too, but this channel of communication is not obvious via a screen. The lack of cues can mean it takes longer to build relationships with solely online interactions. Saying this, if you are comfortable trusting a virtual board to advise on the nuances of your business, both sides will be invested in a profitable outcome of the collaboration, which will negate the need for in-person interactions.

• Perceived risk

A physical, traditional board agrees meeting times and shows up in person at the allotted time. This commitment to attend meetings demonstrates diligence and reliability and shows tangible effort. With a purely remote and virtual board, it could be perceived that there is less investment in a business when board members are not required to physically attend, which may be construed as less committed. This is more a matter of perception than reality however, as the very nature of a virtual board is to be able to support a business as efficiently as possible.

Overall, we suggest that engaging a virtual board will be beneficial to any business that needs strategic support. Whether you have an existing advisory board in place or you have been considering taking the plunge and recruiting a board of directors to help inform and implement your business strategy, stop and consider whether a virtual board of directors might be a more progressive and productive alternative to a traditional board of directors.

A virtual advisory board can be retained on an ad-hoc basis, as and when your business needs, or it can work on a fixed-term basis, providing a long enough agreement is in place to be able to make a difference to the performance of your organisation. You might find after collaborating with a virtual group of professionals that it is just the kind of support you’ve been looking for and that a longer term relationship would be more beneficial. The flexible and dynamic relationship a virtual board offers is a powerful tool to have at your disposal and should not be overlooked.

To find out more, get in touch with Gareth at CBASS.