Download this 10-point checklist and test your board's e-business aptitude

by Paul Baldwin | Nov 06, 2000 8:00:00 AM

Tags: Paul Baldwin

Takeaway: Will your board support you during your next e-business initiative? This 10-point list, originally part of a Gartner Symposium/ITxpo presentation, will help you determine whether your board is likely to sign off on ambitious e-business projects.

You know that a CRM software implementation would help your company better retain its customers. But while you and your staff are in agreement, you’re unsure what your board will think about such an ambitious project.

So you take a look at who is on your board: a vice president at a venture capitalist firm, the former CEO of a successful Internet startup, an engineer with 30 years of IT experience, and the head of a regional networking vendor. Each quarter, you give them an assessment of how your IT projects work to support the company’s business goals, and last year, you worked together to develop a list of goals and objectives for the next three years.

Looks like you’re on solid ground. Maybe.

As part of the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo presentation titled "A Web site is not a strategy: E-world strategizing and governance,” Gartner analyst Marianne Broadbent offered 10 factors to help you determine your board's "fitness" to address the challenges of e-business. We’ve compiled the list for you in a download.

To rate your board, consider how strongly your board exhibits each characteristic on a scale of 1 to 10. Then, tally the ratings to come up with the overall score.

Broadbent's rating system yielded these results, based on an examination of several businesses:

• Traditional businesses—20 to 25 points.
• Companies making the transition to e-business—30 to 35 points.
• Start-up businesses—70 to 80 points.

How did your board rate?
When you’ve completed your scoring, let us know how your board did. We’ll compile the results for future articles. Send your scores and comments to us in an e-mail or start a discussion below.

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