6 ms·
Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.
by daxfohl 7y ago
Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.
- chx 7y agoUsually you don't. The board is not something that directly affects employees lives.
- sjwright 7y agoA self-evidently false assertion.
- subaru_shoe 7y agowhat ? that’s not remotely close to reality
- haecceity 7y agoWhat do they do exactly?
- therealmarv 7y agoChat, meet and get a ton of money. E.g. stop crazy managers to buy a Finnish mobile phone company if they are good ;) https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-does-a-corporate-board-of-directors-do-398865 https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-does-a-corporate-board-of...
- sytelus 7y agoThey do. In a healthy company board is a sort of dampening force that steers CEO away from bad moves and advice him/her so that opportunities are not missed. Elizabeth Holms would be at much better place if board had excercised its authority. They are legally required to be part of almost all big decisions that are being made and they have the authority to at least bring in stockholder vote if they lose confidence in CEO.
- staticassertion 7y agoI think what they meant was that the board does not usually interact a lot with employees, or in a directly employee-facing way. Usually directors will interact with the board, both in terms of informing them and soliciting advice, and that turns into company direction, which funnels down through multiple layers before getting to ICs. Few people can have more impact on the company than a board, but it's very typically abstracted away.
- aianus 7y ago> Usually directors will interact with the board Did you mean "executives"? Directors and The Board are the same thing; it's The Board of Directors.
- waterhouse 7y agoPlenty of people have "Director" (e.g. "Director of Engineering") in their title without being on the board of directors.
- staticassertion 7y agoNot all directors are on the board, but sure you can say executives or whatever. That's probably more accurate.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThis kind of responsibility would remove a lot of trust fund babies from their pretend jobs.
- urda 7y agoYikes, no that's not how boards work.
- sytelus 7y agoMost of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.
- lacker 7y agoAt a huge company like Microsoft the board isn't really a great place for visionaries. It's much better at things like helping the CEO understand the thoughts of large institutional investors that provide Microsoft with capital. A visionary is better suited as a "special advisor" to someone... like the role that Bill Gates is keeping.
- basch 7y agoAt the same time, if the function of the board is to keep the ship from drifting too far off course, or to handle certain problems the company itself seems incapable of or oblivious to (mass cognitive dissonance) it could be useful to have a Jobsesque pitchman who can get a board to be accepting of radical risk taking. A board might lean conservative and risk averse, and sometimes companies need moments of extreme risk. Usually that jump takes a persuader. Being able to sit in on board meetings, and talk during them would be enough, not necessarily having a vote, maybe thats a special adviser?
- wayoutthere 7y ago> Being able to sit in on board meetings, and talk during them would be enough, not necessarily having a vote, maybe thats a special adviser? Big multinationals typically have advisory boards / subcommittees that advise them on certain topics. I assume Microsoft has a technology advisory board (and in their case, likely several) that includes at least some high-level engineering talent. Leadership at the board level involves high level decision-making, but not a lot of actual work. The CFO of PepsiCo has a ton of responsibilities himself; his position on the board of Microsoft is likely only a few hours a month because it's limited to reading reports prepped by the C-suite and its advisors, then voting on decisions. Senior executives and investors are chosen for boards because their day jobs require an understanding of market context and a good bullshit filter to guard against the Jobsesque pitchman scenario.
- rconti 7y agoPadmasree Warrior, Reid Hoffman, Satyella Nadalla, I'd expect a decent number of people have heard of. The rest, no. But that's just my bias.
- paxys 7y agoThat is pretty common. Board members are not involved in day-to-day operations of a company.
- dangerbird2 7y agoPenny Pritzker was the Secretary of Commerce during the Obama admin. She was one of the co-owners of Hyatt, along with other Pritzker family members https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Pritzker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Pritzker
- fuzzfactor 7y ago>Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before. This is the preferred employee experience. A large employer is usually more comfortable having executives of other corporations being more familiar with board members compared to its own employees.