Should you recruit a young director?

• Author: Citrin, James M.
• Position: Corporate boards

Wanted:

Outside director for the board of a Fortune 500 corporation.

Typical Profile:

* Chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 public company from a relevant industry.

* An individual living in a geographically proximate location to the corporation.

* Someone with sufficient time to devote to the board

* An executive between 50 and 64 years of age.

Probable Size of Candidate Pool:

Five to 10 individuals.

As corporate boards go about recruiting new outside directors, they generally develop selection specifications with four main criteria: current position, type of company or industry, appropriate geography, and age range. Against this spec, lists of candidates are created. Board nominating committees review the lists. Candidates are prioritized based on who the board members know, professional background and accomplishments, and estimated time availability. Many names on the lists are familiar -- there are only so many Fortune 500 CEOs. A handful of individuals emerge from the sieve and are contacted. Many of these prospects turn out to be otherwise committed or to not have the appropriate skill set. More lists are generated, more prospects are contacted, and the process repeats itself until the recruitment is finally accomplished.

Increasingly, board nominating committees are confronting this scenario. As the pool of typical candidates for outside directorships stays largely fixed and the need for new directors expands, there is a declining pool of available talent. The typical director candidate pool may actually be declining as a substantial proportion of companies limit the number of outside boards their CEOs can serve on. Many corporations now put the limit at two outside boards.

Is there a way out of this bind? There is, if companies become more creative and flexible in their board recruiting efforts.

Some companies have begun to tap into new pools of candidates to fill their director rosters. Many companies, for example, have added women or minority directors who may have positions a notch or two below the CEO level. Others have occasionally turned to academicians, government leaders, and other non-business people.

Another strategy, however, is to liberate the 50-plus age requirement. Rather than seeking to recruit today's CEOs, the company can search instead for younger leaders who will be the CEOs of tomorrow.

What will this accomplish? It will dramatically increase the pool of talent from which to draw candidates. It will also afford the company the chance to add some unique skills or perspectives, and meet other recruiting...