Introduction
If you read our previous post, you will know that we started from the recognition that the toolbox of leaders, who seek to execute a corporate strategy, needs to be better equipped than before.
The need for better tools
We’re not alone in this observation. In an insightful HBR article, Donald Sull and colleagues point out that organizations often struggle with the horizontal processes of strategy execution — the coordination and alignment between departments. From our own experience, that’s exactly where many execution challenges arise.
At CleverOcean, we believe it starts at the top. Boards of Directors play a crucial role in shaping how strategy gets executed. Most boards handle the mandatory tasks well — overseeing finances, compliance, and governance — supported by robust financial systems that provide timely and accurate reporting.
However, when it comes to adding real business value, Boards want to go further. As highlighted by McKinsey, many Boards seek to engage more deeply:
- Engage more between meetings
- Engage with the strategy as it’s forming
- Engage the field by being involved in specific projects
- Engage on the tough questions
These efforts already happen — but often through scattered emails and undocumented phone calls, which makes consistent follow-up difficult.
The limitations of today’s Board tools
The challenge isn’t intent; it’s the lack of effective tools. Boards today mainly rely on two primitive “hammers”: email threads that clutter inboxes and phone meetings that leave no trace. This limits collaboration, accountability, and strategic follow-through.
Now imagine a tool that allows Boards to agree on goals, record decisions, track progress, and collaborate on strategic initiatives in real time — all in one secure, intuitive space. With on-demand access to performance data, engagement would become both structured and dynamic.
Given that Board members are typically busy, seasoned, and demanding business people, the following list is just some of the things that would need to be true about a tool that would be usable and be used by your “standard Board”:
- It must be completely intuitive, fast, secure, and aesthetically designed
- It must fit the nature of the company and the way the Board wants to work
- It can not give the company executives an extra work burden. On the contrary, it should make life easier for the executives and should ideally melt into the work habits for these guys, too.
- It should, of course, support all types of devices…and it should allow for the types of engagement listed above.
Why CleverOcean
These are the exact standards CleverOcean was built to meet. It enables Boards to collaborate effectively, monitor progress, and stay connected to strategy execution — without adding complexity.
And by the way: if a tool works for the Board, why wouldn’t it work for leaders on other, or even all, levels of an organization? More about that in our next post…
