Who is Looking Over the Horizon?
Happy Friday,
Engineering firms have boards of directors. But what exactly are they supposed to be directing?
Historically, the job was pretty straightforward: protect the shareholders, hire and evaluate the CEO, review financials, watch risk, approve major investments, and keep the company out of trouble.
All still important. But no longer enough.
The engineering business is heading into a period of profound change. AI is just beginning to transform how the work gets done. Private equity is accelerating consolidation. Client expectations are beginning to change. Non-traditional competitors selling 'end-to-end' AI engineering are coming. And the core business model built around selling expensive human intelligence by the hour will probably look very different five to ten years from now.
Someone (with authority) needs to be looking over the horizon.
Management has a company to run. Projects to deliver, clients to serve, people to lead, and new problems arriving every morning. So who's responsible for ensuring the organization is preparing for a fundamentally different future?
The Board.
Before you say, "But board members are busy too!" think that through. Busyness doesn't diminish the urgency of the Board's responsibility to the organization, its employees, and stakeholders. Boards don't get to rest on their laurels.
Engineering firm boards naturally tend to be populated by engineers. Often very successful ones. They understand the company, the profession, the clients, and the culture.
Thus the problem: If everyone around the table learned to succeed under the same business model, they may have tremendous perspective on the world that created the company, but very little on the world that's coming. Plus, success in an already established company doesn't instill a founder's entrepreneurial gene, which the profession desperately needs now.
Equally worrisome, the organization's executive team probably has exactly the same blind spots for exactly the same reasons.
It's time to bring a broader perspective into the room, either as a board member or an advisor. Ideally, an entrepreneur who understands both engineering and AI, and who's comfortable challenging conventional wisdom and asking uncomfortable questions.
Not instead of engineers. Alongside them.
The board's job isn't to predict the future or tell management how to run the company. It's to ensure management knows what's coming, challenges old assumptions, and positions the organization to succeed.
That requires curiosity, courage, and perspectives that may not currently sit around the boardroom table.
Here's the question every engineering organization should ask itself:
If every director's term expired tomorrow, who would we deliberately recruit back? And what expertise would we go looking for that we don't currently have?
Punchline: The greatest risk may not be making the wrong decision about the future. It may be a board that never asks the right questions.
Have a great weekend,
Dave
Feedback, blowback, and suggested topics are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com
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