The board of directors of a public company has a long list of oversight responsibilities, but it is not always the case that directors receive the information they need to make fully informed decisions on key matters, such as strategy, succession, and performance monitoring. We recently studied a novel approach to information sharing at Netflix that provides a model for overcoming this governance shortfall.
How Netflix Redesigned Board Meetings
In many companies, boards struggle to get the information they need to make informed decisions on key issues. To address this challenge, Netflix has taken a radically different approach to board communication. Instead of stuffy PowerPoints, impossible-to-decipher spreadsheets, and endless meetings, Netflix invites board members to attend periodic senior management meetings, and communicates via short, interactive memos. These two innovations yield several key benefits: First, attending management meetings helps board members get a better sense for how things are going on the ground. Second, the interactive memos allow board members to easily ask questions and discuss issues in real time, making both these virtual conversations and physical meetings more efficient. While every company faces its own challenges, Netflix’s innovative approach offers a model that can help any organization improve communication between senior management and the board.