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GOOD PRACTICE

The Role of the Incubator Board

The incubator Board of Directors, or Executive Council, plays a central role in driving an incubator. This artticle highlights best practices in appointing Board members, and in defining the roles and obligations of the Board.

OBJECTIVES

Skilled management professionals play key roles in any successful organization or enterprise. This Guideline looks at how this core concept relates to business incubation by considering the characteristics, profiles, responsibilities and composition of an incubator’s Board, as well as their relations with stakeholders, mentors and consultant networks.

By way of example, Meeder cites a case from 1991-1992 during a training program for incubator managers run by the NBIA which involved more than 240 people from the United States and Canada. In a survey taken during the event, it was noted that a very large number of managers listed their boards of directors as being their most pressing problem. Many of these participants described situations that were sufficiently serious to threaten the very feasibility of their programs. If this sampling is representative of the business incubator industry as a whole, one can conclude that the relation between the manager and board of directors is a factor of crucial importance to incubator management. So, it is worth having a closer look in this topic.

The Board of Directors is also known as the Executive Council, Technical Council, Guidance Council, Curator Council or Deliberative Council. It is composed of representatives of the management entity; of the partners included in the incubator; and of organizations that provided the (financial and material) resources needed to establish the incubator. The Board has the task of defining the policies of the incubator, strategic planning, evaluating performance and proposing improvements or alterations as required by the incubator’s services. Other Board responsibilities encompass the definition of criteria and parameters for selection of businesses that are candidates for admission to the incubator; managerial supervision; and resolution of administrative questions that are beyond the purview of management (Medeiros et alii).

According to Greco, the Board of Directors also “plays a key role in recommending, reviewing and approving companies for inclusion in the incubator facility”. Dornelas stresses the fact that the activities of the Board or Council involve exploring new credit lines, the pursuit of new partners and development of the network of contacts.

Greco stresses, among other golden rules to be followed in incubator management, “the boards of directors are generally responsible for policy development and not day-to-day operations, which are left to the incubator manager. Bureaucracy, in the case of government-sponsored incubators, should be kept to a minimum”.

Wolfe presents a study in which the size and composition of the board of directors must reflect the needs of the incubators at the various stage of development. “Initially, the board must have the minimum number of members required for performing its role of providing strategic support to the director or president of the incubator. However, it is important to calculate the time that will be needed for the director and staff to provide support to each additional member, as compared to the benefits that the person can provide to the incubator and its clients. In any successful incubator, the board will have a mix of individuals with varying characteristics and skills”.

The President of the Incubator Board

According to Rice and Matthews, “despite the difficulties with which the sponsors and staff may have to cope in selecting the president, this is one of the most critical tasks before them.

The authors also suggest that the president of the board should be a person who:

• Is active in this role of supporting entrepreneurial activities.
• Recognizes every task as a means to achieve the central mission.
• Has the ability to face the challenges of the start-up process.
• Must be able to deal with the development of a highly successful incubator and incubated companies.
• Must be ready to help entrepreneurs come up with the resources needed for their growth.

The president of the board is also responsible for:

• Representing the incubator’sBoard.
• Directing the incubator Board’s work, paying attention to the incubator statutes.
• Calling and guiding incubator Board meetings.
• Observing incubator Board decisions and ensuring that they are obeyed.

KEY ISSUES

Identify main partners and invite them to join the board. Sally Hayhow advises in “How to Have the Best Board of Directors” that the members of a board should be selected from every area in which the incubator has needs. As the incubator evolves, the it may need to change the composition of its Board. According to Rice and Mathews, a good start may be to have “leaders/champions committed to the success of business incubation, networkers, real estate and business operations professionals, business assistance providers, investment professionals, entrepreneurs, product/services assessment professionals”. See the Guideline on Stakeholder Identification.

Establish a clear mission and a statute. The Incubator (and Board) should have a clear mission and legal framework. This avoids interference in management and divergent objectives between board members themselves and managers. It also creates and makes clear the incubator’s internal procedures. See the Guideline on Strategic Planning.
Define regular board meetings. The prior definition of a regular agenda (it can be annual, semestral or trimestral) allows the Board members to set their schedule ahead, avoiding absences or delays. Also, the prior agenda allows better activity planning and follow up, once Board members are aware of the main topics to be discussed at the meetings. See example of a Prior Meeting Agenda.

Be ready to remove inefficient Board members. Hayhow suggests that incubators should have “staggered terms, and in some cases term limits. For the staggered term, the first year’s board members draw lots to determine who will be one-year, two-year, or three-year members. From then on there’s pretty steady turnover”. She also points out the possibility of having specific board members fully responsible for a specific assignment.

RESPONSIBLE PARTIES

Incubator managers or/and Incubator director.

INDICATORS

Definition of the management system of the incubator
Definition of the performance assessment models.
Increase in the number of projects analyzed by the board.

RESULTS

To have a pro-active incubator board, which helps to define the strategic vision of the incubator and properly conducts management focused on results, performance, efficiency and effectiveness.