TAB was first featured in The Profit in 2018, when it was launched in Hawke’s Bay by Wayne Baird and Russell Jaggard. Back then, Wayne and Russell were just starting to establish TAB, seeing the opportunity to offer the model that was benefiting small businesses across New Zealand and the world.

The more conventional advisory structure for a business is to have a governance board, made up of experienced business people across a range of business competencies such as financial, legal, human resources and marketing and sales.

This type of structure is usually for medium-to-large businesses and is particularly common in the corporate sector as well as the not-for-profit sector.

TAB was launched in 1990 by US entrepreneur Allen Fishman as a way for small businesses to get the benefits of a board structure. In 2012, Aucklander Stephen James introduced TAB to New Zealand and it’s now in nine cities and towns across the country.

Wayne Baird is the franchisee for Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Taupo and Wairarapa, with Russell being joined by experienced business leader and start- up extraordinaire Ailne Bradley as board facilitators.

Having been a board director and chair myself for the past 14 years, it was a pleasant surprise to turn up for a TAB meeting and be asked to go to the white board and rate out of 10 how I was feeling about my own business and also how I was feeling personally.

New Zealand had just moved from COVID-19 Alert Level 3 to Level 2 and so the four of the five members of the TAB I was joining were all happy to see each other in person, instead of via a Zoom video conference call, therefore they were in relatively high spirits, with the lowest rating being 7.5 (and this was me!).

Wayne hosted of the TAB meeting that was attended by local business owners Carol Reid of Soulpreneurs, Kay Castles of Admin Plus, Alieta Uelese of Learning Innovations and newcomer Joanna Monteith of Consult Ltd. Absent was Dr Sundar Jagadeesan of new dental practice Dentiq, who had only just reopened his practice and had a backlog of patients to treat.

The agenda for the meeting followed the TAB’s well-honed formula that affords everyone around the table equal opportunity to provide updates on their business, and then report on progress from actions they agreed at the previous meeting before presenting a new challenge or opportunity their business is facing.

Following the biggest disruption to businesses and the economy and the world strike on March 24, you would have expected the mood of the table to be sombre, but in fact it was largely the opposite.

The forced physical closure of their businesses and lockdown spent at home had given these business owners the time to not only keep business going and staff motivated but also to adjust their businesses to the new normal.  When it came time to put forward a recent challenge or opportunity, the true benefit of the TAB board format came into its own.

As each member addressed their fellow board members, they were scrutinised first, responding to a range of questions, some expected but many unexpected.

The appeal of the process was that the room wasn’t full of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ people, nor those who had a vested interest due to being a staff member, director/ governor or an investor/shareholder.

The questions were tough and the advice even tougher. And that’s the gold of TAB. There are no hidden agendas, you get what you give, as your time to put something forward soon comes.

For small business owners it can be a lonely place leading from the front but with TAB, there is genuine support as well as accountability.

As the facilitator, Wayne gave everyone an opportunity to firstly ask questions rather than risk going straight to the possible solutions.

This was an easy trap for me to fall into and I quickly realised that I couldn’t shoot straight to what I thought was a solution. Instead, by asking questions you get to fully understand the situation each business owner is experiencing before putting forward any suggestions, ideas or advice.

I like to think of myself as an ‘ideas person’, so this was particularly challenging, but the approach works. Not only does it draw out the full picture but it enables the business posing the issue or opportunity to get a broader and more external perspective.

Everything is confidential; there’s no risk of ideas being leaked. As an observer I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I’m not going into any detail on what was raised.

However, two members had challenges they wanted to moot about how to evolve their businesses, while the other two members were looking at solutions to get the best out of their teams.

My summation was that the challenges and opportunities weren’t anything I hadn’t heard before but it was the process – the listening, line of questions, advice and agreement for action – that was unique.

There’s accountability and it’s not to those within your business that perhaps you can make excuses for not actioning as promised.

To close the meeting, Wayne asked each member what they intended to action before the next meeting and it was recorded. After the formal meeting, Wayne contacts and works with each member on their actions.

Kay Castle sees many benefits in becoming a member of a TAB board, saying that she always gets something valuable to further develop her administration support business.

“We all share ideas and our experiences and there’s a high level of confidence and trust in each other. We’re also very fortunate to have Wayne and the opportunity to tap into his wealth of knowledge.”

Like the board meeting format, the final word must go to Wayne (not me …).
He says his personal vision is to work alongside as many SMEs as possible to help them reach their own goals and visions for what they want their business to be.

“When you ask questions, you gain clarity. I often see business owners who leave the meeting with a completely different viewpoint. That’s the beauty of the collective wisdom around the table and one of the aspects that makes The Alternative Board different.”

As we all move out of COVID-19 and look to keep adapting our businesses, it’s worth contacting Wayne at wbaird@ thealternativeboard.co.nz to discuss how TAB can assist.