Board Advisory and Chair Search

Pressures on boards are at an all-time high, with shareholders pushing for action on digitization, diversity, and sustainability. We find future-ready board leaders who face the transformation that society and investors demand. This requires people who are willing to transform themselves and contribute to setting the right course and delivering corporate strategy. In this environment, in addition to professional competence, boards are called upon to exemplify, challenge and promote active leadership, personal responsibility and leadership development. Strong boards combine a high level of competence, independence, and ethical stability, which, with their commitment to companies, ensure an advantage in global competition, maximize performance, think long-term and thrive in a changing world. RefineValue helps clients find leaders ready for tomorrow who will take you where you need to go—not where you are today.

Board Director and Chair Search

For boards, a clear competence profile is needed for the entire body, from which the competence profiles of the individual members can be derived. Successful boards are characterized by the fact that the members bring different experiences with them, complement each other with their expertise and personalities, and share a common vision for the company. As part of succession planning, we evaluate the current composition and analyze which experience and skills on the boards can be expanded. It is our conviction that board members should always fit the respective situation, vision and culture of a company and bring different experiences, complement each other as personalities and close gaps in the board with their competence—also in topics such as digitalization and transformation to sustainability. Our experience in developing leaders and our comprehensive, cross-sector expertise, ensure our consultants are valued by candidates as trusted advisors. This results in open and transparent discussions on an equal footing, which significantly increase the chances of finding leaders ready for the future. Our contacts with political decision-makers and top management, coupled with our experience and understanding of the most recent developments, give companies a competitive edge when it comes to succession planning and search for board directors with outstanding personalities.

Our ambition is to attract the board members who will give companies an edge in global competition. We believe that digital expertise on board is crucial in this regard. The digital revolution and technological change are shaking up almost every industry on an unprecedented scale and at a corresponding speed. This is forcing companies to realign their business strategies at ever shorter intervals, in some cases with an existential character and radically transformed business models. This requires a board with the breadth to penetrate the complex effects of digitization on the company and thus create added value. At no time has it been so important to critically question the “tried and trusted” in boards, to bring in new insights, and to deliver transformations and innovations, thus contributing to long-term competitiveness. We support companies in benchmarking and evaluating whether the boards have the necessary competencies for digital transformation and innovations. Depending on the digital evolution stage and maturity level of the company, the expertise required in the board to accompany the future challenges differs. Our consultants have access to these personalities that bring new ideas, business models and, promote strategic foresight.

Finding Digital-Ready Leaders

Finding Sustainability-Ready Leaders

One of the most important tasks of boards is to anticipate shifts in the economy, society, and politics at an early stage in order to thrive. Against the backdrop of the accelerated social debate and political decisions on the transformation to a more sustainable economic model, there is a need for leaders who can support companies with proven competencies and find answers to questions relating to sustainability. Sustainability is already of central importance for a company’s future competitiveness and ability to act. Investors, employees, consumers, and suppliers are all increasingly focused on sustainability aspects when making decisions. It’s no longer business as usual. Boards need to deliver sustainability transformation. We have established and extensive contacts with leaders who see sustainability as a transformational challenge whose success will determine the future competitiveness of companies.

Diversity on board of directors and advisory boards is key to the future viability of companies—we at RefineValue are deeply convinced of this. Experience shows that diverse boards that combine different experiences, genders, origins, and age structures are more powerful. In terms of gender diversity, women are still significantly underrepresented on boards, despite statistical evidence clearly showing that a more balanced representation of women on boards leads to better financial results and fewer risks. Increasing the proportion of women on boards is a catalyst for sustainable, long-term corporate development. The current situation clearly shows that companies are still giving away potential here. We draw on our unrivaled network of senior leaders to deliver diverse slates of expected—and unexpected—candidates. While it’s no secret that DE&I is lagging in boardrooms, over 40% of our successful board candidates were women in 2021. We have established extensive contacts with female and under-represented minority leaders to deliver outstanding candidates.

Accelerate performance of your Board with Diversity

Accelerate Your Business with an Advisory Board

Well-assembled advisory boards are a competitive advantage and offer added value for long-term and sustainable corporate development— consequently half of all family businesses and startups already have an advisory board. In unlisted companies, the advisory board is becoming increasingly important, which is why we have developed a dedicated offering for family businesses and startups. One focus of our work in recent years has been to support family businesses and startups in setting up an advisory board and appointing independent advisory board members, assessing and optimizing existing supervisory boards and committees, developing succession planning strategies and finding outstanding leaders for advisory board positions.

Our Expertise

Our board advsiory services range from the development and benchmarking of the competency profile for the entire board, to evaluation and benchmarking in the competency fields of digital and sustainability, to long-term succession planning and search for board directors and chairs. In addition, we support family businesses and start-ups in setting up advisory boards from scratch, appointing independent advisory board members, and assessing and optimizing existing advisory boards and committees.