Beyond The Numbers: Crafting A Board Deck That Tells A Powerful Story

Crafting a board deck is a crucial step when preparing for a board meeting with the company’s top management. You should have this deck ready so that the directors, the CEO, and the core executives can make strategic decisions.

The deck will include updated and detailed information about the company’s performance, enabling participants to take stock of its shortfalls. They can zero in on the aspects that are not working well and revisit previous decisions to evaluate their impact.

Board meetings typically have the company’s advisors also present, who can offer relevant feedback and guidance on the next steps. A board deck ensures that the board meeting stays on track and discusses the main issues on priority.

Attendees receive the deck well ahead of the meeting, so they are aware of the agenda and points of discussion. Accordingly, they can prep their responses and note down the issues they need to be addressed.

Typically, the CEO/founder develops the board deck while the management team fills in the data and other information. A comprehensive deck will also have inputs from internal team members, external consultants, advisors, and investor representatives to the board.

Understanding What a Board Deck is

When crafting a board deck, understand that it is a collection of slides carefully organized to present crucial company information. It also includes the agenda for the board meeting along with materials that form the basis of discussions.

These materials can include financial reports, projected numbers, key performance indicators (KPIs), and data analyses. Similar to a pitch deck, the board deck may have a series of graphs and charts to provide better clarity. Visual aids ensure that the members can quickly consume the information.

By reviewing the board deck, members and other participants can assess the company’s progress and the areas where it has made headway. It also highlights the areas where the performance fell short of expectations, along with the ongoing strategies and growth frameworks.

Having a well-structured board deck ensures that discussions progress as planned and don’t get derailed with inconsequential matters.

Advantages of Crafting a Board Deck

Crafting and presenting a board deck has several advantages, and streamlining meeting discussions is only one of them. Here’s what you need to know:

Providing Crucial Updates to the Key Stakeholders

A board deck serves as a robust communication tool for the participants in the meeting. They can study it to gain a precise overview of the company’s current condition. Considering that investors are strategic partners, providing them with a board deck helps build a robust relationship with them.

As mentioned earlier, the performance metrics provided through charts and graphs help members to devise a plan of action. For instance, if the company has a high cash burn rate, the deck will display cash inflow and outflow numbers. It will also have slides with the current number of products made.

Accordingly, the members can discuss plugging gaps and improving cash flows so that the company improves operational efficiency. A board deck also provides updates about the matters discussed in the last meeting. Participants can discuss the impact of their decisions and the resultant progress.

Board Decks Ensure Productive Meetings

When several matters are on the agenda, meetings need to be productive and efficient. And that’s where crafting a board deck comes in. It lists all the important discussion topics, ensuring that the meeting remains organized and focused.

The law requires the board to hold a meeting once every quarter or at least 4 times each year. The maximum gap between two sessions cannot be more than 120 days. Early-stage startups may have more frequent meetings, such as once or twice a month.

Each meeting can last anywhere from one hour to four hours, depending on the company’s size and its operational complexities. The growth stage, size, and issues on the agenda can also determine the meeting’s duration.

Further, meetings are typically the only time when all the main stakeholders are in the room. Having a list of topics that need decisions ensures that nothing important slips through the cracks. Any delays in addressing issues and postponing them until the next meeting can be costly for the company.

To ensure the meeting is productive, consider adding a Q&A slide to the deck. Attendees can examine the data and come prepared with more questions or responses to the questions already noted. The meeting can start by addressing the points on the agenda.

These points can include decisions about hiring new talent, tapping into new revenue streams, and running the next fundraising campaign. Considering an acquisition offer the company may have received can also be added to the list of items on the agenda.

Once the key issues are resolved and out of the way, participants can move on to their individual concerns during the remaining time. This is why it’s essential to list the key issues when crafting a board deck.

Board Decks List the Challenges the Company is Facing

Unlike a funding pitch deck or a sales deck, a board deck is not concerned about listing the positives of the company. Instead, it takes a good, hard look at the challenges it is facing without sugarcoating the issues. In this way, it ensures that the leadership takes steps to address them.

Executive team members dealing with the actual operations, like product development, advertising strategies, and human resources, approach the leadership for guidance. During meetings, they present updated data and reports on how their departments are progressing.

The leadership reviews the reports and provides feedback on how to achieve objectives. If the team has a strategic game plan for executing on the goals, they can present it for approval. The board meeting is a safe space to discuss even the toughest of challenges and look for practical solutions.

Board Decks Acknowledge Hard Work and Accomplishments

Crafting a board deck is also about celebrating the wins during the board meeting. You’ll create a slide highlighting the wins and acknowledging the hard work specific employees have dedicated.

In this way, you’ll ensure the board recognizes the initiatives and accomplishments of non-C-Suite employees. The board can discuss how to reward them and publicly appreciate their contributions.

This strategy is crucial for motivating the team and improving morale, and it institutes a robust company culture.

Board Decks Present a Consolidated Overview of Crucial Metrics

Crafting a board deck involves prepping for the meeting, and you’ll compile all the critical data across 120 days. Or, since the last board meeting was held. You’ll pull numbers from different departments and organize them in an easy-to-understand format for the members.

This approach creates a snapshot of the company’s performance in the form of bar charts. Include numbers like annual recurring revenues (ARR) over the last 12 months, profits, losses, and monthly recurring revenues (MRR).

Experts advise having a 12-month trailing bar chart to present a more comprehensive overview. The last few meetings may not have been consistently organized and on schedule. Thus, members should be able to get information about the month-over-month progress.

You’ll also add numbers like the number of new customers acquired and the number of customers lost. These numbers will help prompt a discussion about effective marketing and advertising strategies and what more needs to be done.

Allocating budgets for specific projects and goals is another crucial point on the agenda. You’ll include a slide when crafting a board deck.

But the most critical factor is that you’ll sort through the numbers relevant to the board meeting, adding only those that need to be discussed. This strategy conserves board time and ensures efficiency.

Tips to Remember When Crafting a Board Deck

Your board deck is a conversation starter and sets the tone and mood for the discussions across the next few hours. Here’s what you need to remember when crafting a board deck.

A Board Deck Reflects the Company’s Culture

A board deck mirrors the company’s culture and the type of products and services it offers. As the founder/CEO, you’re communicating the brand’s progress to its key stakeholders, which may include investors. Accordingly, you’ll use its style and color scheme, and also incorporate its logo and tagline.

For instance, a board deck for a cybersecurity company will have a solid black and white presentation that projects reliability. On the other hand, a children’s fiction company’s board deck would play around with pastel colors and softer patterns. The objective is to convey subtle messages.

A Board Deck Delivers a Narrative

Similar to a fundraising pitch deck, the board deck also delivers a narrative, describing the company’s growth trajectory. Each slide should engage the audience while providing a clear understanding of the points under discussion.

For instance, the product development team has designed an entirely new product range with innovative features that can take over the market. The presentation will include a detailed story of what makes their idea better than the ones the brand is currently producing.

The team will also have numbers to demonstrate the potential market, reviews from early adopters, and projected pricing. They may also have a beta version to show investors and other stakeholders how the product works.

That’s how they’ll initiate a discussion about the pros and cons of this new product launch and potential profit generation. The meeting will round off with a budget allocation to get the project off the ground. And, how the costs and revenues will feature in the company’s financials.

Keep in mind that storytelling is everything in fundraising or communicating with stakeholders. In this regard, for a winning pitch deck to help you here, take a look at the template created by Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley legend (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that founders worldwide are using to raise millions below.

A Board Deck Reiterates the Founder’s Vision and Business Model

The board deck starts off with a reiteration of the company’s core business model. The financials and other data you present should demonstrate how the profits, revenues, and cash flows align with the model.

Similarly, you’ll use the board deck to talk about how the proposed strategies align with the original vision. You’ll talk about research and development programs and the results they have yielded. Or, the new talent you’ve onboarded to ensure that the vision comes to life.

Regardless of the company’s performance over the last quarter, you’ll use the board deck to reinforce trust with the stakeholders. Discussing challenges and arriving at solutions ensures that all members are on the same page and proactively involved in decision-making.

Prepping the Board Deck for the Meeting

As mentioned earlier, you’ll start crafting a board deck at least two weeks before the board meeting. Remember that compiling numbers and metrics from the different departments and organizing them can take time. Give yourself adequate time to gather the data and verify it for accuracy.

Most importantly, you’ll select data for the board deck that is relevant to the discussions you intend to initiate. Once the deck is ready, you’ll send it to the board members and other participants. Allow them time to review the materials so they are aware of the meeting’s agenda and objectives.

Ask for confirmation that they have understood the materials. You’ll also inform them that they can request more information about any data they need to see. Include these details as requested to streamline the meeting.

Using a template is always advisable to help you with organizing the topics for discussion. You’ll find several resources online to help you create the board deck and customize it as needed. Alternatively, rely on Google Slides or a PowerPoint presentation.

You’ll arrange the slides in strategic order to align with the narrative and keep the discussions flowing.

Leverage a Board Deck for a Productive Board Meeting

A well-structured board deck is crucial for a streamlined and successful board meeting. You’ll deliver all the essential updates to the key stakeholders, informing them about the company’s progress over the last quarter. You’ll also initiate discussions about further projects the team wants to undertake.

When crafting a board deck, remember that it serves as a conversation starter, inviting participants to ask questions. You’ll prepare responses to address their concerns. Furthermore, you’ll use this time to invite expert advice and guidance from advisors and investor representatives.

That’s how you’ll ensure that the company realizes its objectives and all the stakeholders are on the same page.

You may also find our free library of business templates interesting. There, you will find every single template you need to build and scale your business completely, all for free. See it here.