60 Business The EconomistNovember 21st 2020
2Bartleby How to play the board game
R
each a certain prominence in
public life and you may be invited to
become a non-executive director. The
most lucrative option is to join the board
of a large company. But for social pres-
tige, there is nothing quite like joining
the board of a cultural organisation. In
Britain, these boards are dominated by
“the great and the good”—aristocrats and
wealthy businesspeople.
Sir John Tusa, a former bbcexecutive,
has written a guide based on his exten-
sive experience among Britain’s literati
and glitterati. “On Board: The Insider’s
Guide to Surviving Life in the Board-
room” is a useful primer for any board
member. The job, Sir John argues, is not
all about free tickets and lavish dinners.
“There is no difference between go-
vernance on a corporate board and an
arts board,” he says. “Sitting on a board,
let alone chairing one, is one of the most
demanding, complex and taxing activ-
ities in the world of public life.”
The book also gives an inside glimpse
of the political battles that were fought
over the future of venerable institutions
such as the British Museum, English
National Opera and the National Portrait
Gallery. Cultural boards face a constant
tension between the need to get funding
from the government and the artistic
ambitions of their executives, a dilemma
made even thornier by the need to repair
crumbling or outdated buildings.
Such was the traditional nature of
these institutions in the years when Sir
John operated that the book is some-
times redolent of the interwar era. He
was invited to join the board of the Brit-
ish Museum over lunch at the Garrick, a
gentleman’s club founded in 1831. He
then discovered that board meetings
were held on Saturday mornings because
a former Archbishop of Canterbury,when a trustee, had requested the time slot
as it allowed him time to write his Sunday
sermon in the afternoon.
Perhaps this old-fashioned atmosphere
(which has now been changed by bringing
in a wider range of trustees) led to some of
the difficulties that Sir John describes. Too
many appointments were rushed, he says,
forgetting the first rule: “If you can’t see
the right candidate in front of you, don’t
appoint.” One frequent problem he faced
was tension between the chairman and
chief executive, so he suggested that one-
to-one discussions between the two
should be part of the appointment process
to ensure compatibility. When in their
posts, the duo should aim to talk every day.
Even then, the chairman (or woman)
must retain a certain air of detachment.
The boss’s approach, says the author, can
be summed up by the quote: “We are total-
ly on the same side until the day that I have
to sack him.” Bad chairmen tend to impose
their views, fail to respond to ideas and
refuse to alter their approach. Often they
place their favourites on the board, creat-
ing factions and causing destruction.Sir John’s advice to chief executives is
to tell the board what they are doing,
when, how and why—all in order to
persuade board members that the boss
deserves support. But ceos should not
deluge trustees or directors with pa-
perwork: “If information is power, it
must be remembered that too much
information is a smokescreen.”
As for board members, Sir John says
they should ask questions of the exec-
utive, and be careful about accepting the
answers too easily. They should also
remember that there is no such thing as a
stupid question. And it is not their job to
develop strategy: “The executive pro-
poses, but the board disposes,” he says.
Trustees should be chosen with a
view that one of them is capable of chair-
ing the board in due course. Further-
more, trustees should know why they
have been invited to join the board and
how they might best contribute to the
organisation’s success.
All Sir John’s suggestions seem sen-
sible and most would apply to public
companies as well as to arts institutions.
The role of non-executive directors has
never been well defined. Tiny Rowland, a
swashbuckling tycoon, dismissed them
as “Christmas tree decorations”—just for
show, in other words. Think of the great
names that studded the board of The-
ranos, a blood-test startup, and how they
failed to stop its collapse.
Most non-executives do their best but
are caught between two stools. They do
not know enough to challenge the exec-
utives properly. But if they push their
questions too far, they will not be re-
appointed. Above all, trustees and non-
executive directors cannot do their job
unless the management wants their
input. Wise bosses should know their
limitations and rely on boards for advice.A useful guide by a cultural veteranlar ones. The law’s defeat on the tails of the
pandemic bonanza has once again whetted
investors’ appetite for food delivery. Door-
Dash is hoping for a valuation of $25bn, up
from $16bn in its most recent private-mar-
ket funding round in June. The offering is
already oversubscribed. It is hard to argue
with growth rates of 100-200% a year, notes
Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, a research
firm. DoorDash bulls point to Meituan-
Dianping, the biggest such app in China,
which turned profitable last year and is
now worth a cool $230bn.
The American firm’s numbers con-tained plenty to chew on. DoorDash is
generating cash and is profitable on an ad-
justed basis. Its in-app ads business offers
juicy margins. The company sees itself as
the digital hub for the convenience econ-
omy, connecting merchants, customers
and riders; the word “platform” cropped up
646 times in the filing. It has started deliv-
ering groceries and convenience-store
items. Its logistics arm sells last-mile de-
livery to other companies, notably Wal-
mart. Looking ahead, high unemployment
amid a continuing pandemic downturn
should mean lots of cheap labour.Other facts are harder to swallow—not
least that it has taken covid-19 to make food
delivery profitable, and then only margin-
ally so. DoorDash warns that growth will
slow as the virus ebbs. The share prices of
many listed digital firms that benefited
from lockdowns and self-isolating con-
sumers, from Amazon to Zoom, dipped on
the news of an effective vaccine. And de-
spite their critics’ defeat in California, gig
firms will continue to face accusations of
thriving on the back of exploited workers.
In this respect, DoorDash has already
joined the club of listed tech platforms. 7