Competent executive teams thrive on strong feedback from their advisors. Competent Account Managers have strong opinions about their companies and understand the inherent tension between advisors and operational Management. The tension is often the fundamental source of product improvement and innovation. 

Strong companies manage conflict.  

(We were trying to come up with a clean phrase to describe the alternative approach and simply couldn't get past the various sexual metaphors used to describe the purchase of agreement. Board Members who sell their agreement can be described as Sycophants or Toadies. Cynical insiders simply refer to them as "the usual whores".)

We got to thinking about this while talking to Chip Henry, Monster's Manager of The Voice Of The Customer. Empowered to act, Chip has operational responsibility for Customer service and fuels the customer input that is radically altering Monster's service reputation and behavioral profile.

A veteran of customer service at LL Bean and Eddie Bauer, Chip is bringing a real consumer sensibility to our business (which traditionally offers little in the way of consumer style customer service.) He's working hard to build a customer based Advisory Board that is central to the company's self-concept. 

We chatted for about a half an hour about the difficulties associated with getting the really useful feedback to emerge. "It's awfully negative and takes a real commitment from the customer to give it," we said. "Yes, but it's vital to our success to understand it and build with it in mind." 

It caused us to reflect on our recent involvements in Advisory Boards (AB). Hire.com is a company we've come to admire in particularly deep ways because of the way they use their advisors. Critical decisions and strategies are often cycled through the AB in search of strong opinion. The relationships with the AB are deep enough so that many key employees are exposed and understand how to filter and use the input.

We've had a number of experiences with the alternative approach. The stink washes off slowly

From what we can tell, companies that will succeed over the long haul understand that they have blind spots. They work hard to build structures that can help them see those blind spots.

It makes us wonder whether or not the Advisory Board structure doesn't make sense for Recruiting Departments. Imagine a quarterly meeting with key hiring managers and outside advisors designed to evaluate and improve the quality of the internal recruiting product. The result would be sustained and helpful networks throughout the company and the emergence of the "Voice of the Customer" in the Recruiting product. 

 -John Sumser

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