The Advisors' Blog

David Swinford wrote a recent note relating to consultant availability—suggesting that committees need to ensure that their lead consultant will be available when needed. I completely agree with this, but would offer one simple thing that companies can do to aid this process: Make sure the consultant is available when scheduling a meeting!

I know this sounds absurdly simple, but I can’t tell you how often that I have had clients reach out to all of the board members to determine their availability, schedule the meeting, and then call me with the meeting date and time on the assumption that I will be available. When dealing with the inevitable conflicts that would result, I applied a simple rule—I went to the meeting of the client that asked first, irrespective of size of company or existing relationship. In my view, it was the only fair thing to do.

So, as you are planning a special meeting or creating the Board calendar for 2010, think of your consultant as if he or she is another Board member. Check their availability, and get dates on their calendar as soon as possible. For busy people, it is always easier to take dates off the calendar than it is to put them on.

– Jim Woodrum, EC Analysis