Navigating the digital darkness: rather than simply naming a 'digerati to a coveted seat in the boardroom, the advisory board option is a sound one for infusing comprehensive digital insight to the board.

• Author: Davis, George L.
• Position: ADVISORY BOARDS

"DIGITAL" IS NOW THE NEXUS of business transformation, yet many corporate boards sense the digital landscape is a blind spot in their field of strategic vision. Unable to predict what tomorrow's hot topics will be and uncomfortable with the implications of today's technological innovations, boards have valid reason to be concerned that their knowledge may be falling behind this rapidly evolving, critically important strategic variable.

In response, we have seen a rush to name top. technology stars to esteemed board posts in the hopes of enhancing companies' strategic vision. In cases where corporate governance requires a high-minded, multichannel digital perspective, these decisions have been well made and highly successful. But naming a "digerati" to the board is not always the best way to navigate the digital darkness.

Experience suggests that boards and nominating chairs can rarely foresee the full range of digital challenges to be met. Over time, they often find they need increasingly diverse digital expertise, and so must infuse digital decision making with broader viewpoints than any one expert might provide. In such instances, corporate leadership teams and governance boards are astute to consider an alternative option: creating a digital advisory board, a small group of subject matter experts who offer varying voices and perspectives, infusing comprehensive digital insight to the board without taking a coveted seat in the boardroom.

A classic rationale

Advisory boards have long been a staple in the healthcare and pharma industries, which convene cross-disciplinary sets of acclaimed individuals with varying perspectives to collectively serve as a sounding board, prepared to vet strategic decisions across a critical set of topics. The same rationale applies to digital advisory boards. While a "digital director" adds one highly refined perspective to the boardroom, digital advisory boards typically consist of four to six highly respected digital experts who may be drawn from both the public and private sector, with expertise ranging from product design to programming to e-commerce and social networking.

These individuals, and their innovative ideas, tend to flourish in 'group think' atmospheres such as an advisory board, which affords more latitude for free-ranging discussion than does a solemn corporate board setting, where too many topics already crowd too-short board meetings. In contrast, a digital advisory board brings together...