At LawSikho, we have a formula for success: Capability + Credibility/ track record + Outreach = Success in anything!
Most people remain stuck at the knowledge level, and assume the rest of it will happen automatically over time. A lot of people do not even develop the relevant skills, which is very damaging.
Here are the most important skills to become an independent director:
- Understanding of framework and implementation of corporate governance, inter-corporate transactions and related party transactions, SEBI regulations (especially for IPOs, LODR, ICDR, delisting regulations etc)
- Understanding code of conduct and ethics, board meetings, internal reporting and escalation mechanism, audit committees and other committees
- Understanding sources of finance for the company (rights issue, transfer of shares etc), methods to create incentives for employees (ESOPs, clawback clause etc), insider trading and such.
- White collar crimes and frauds, liabilities of directors and management
- Appointment of auditors, understanding of accounting, reading and interpreting audit reports, etc.
How many of these skills do you already have? In our experience, these skills can be learnt in 6 months with proper guidance.
There are a few other skills you need to develop which will enable you to build your track record, such as networking with headhunters who hire IDs, managing your PR and branding, building your public profile, hiring ghostwriters, communication skills – especially in conferences, TV debates etc
What happens once you have developed such skills? Then, build a track record.
Having skills alone is not enough; you must build a track record that shows to potential employers that you have a very strong personal brand and profile to be appointed as an independent director.
How do you strengthen your personal brand? Here are a few important things that will accelerate your appointment as an independent director:
- Passing the IICA exam
- Media coverage around you
- Interviews in industry publications
- Your Google search page and footprint – potential recruiters are going to go through this
- The articles and books that you have published
- Your association with industry:
- Have you been on the advisory board of startups or other companies?
- Have you been involved with industry associations?
- Have you been associated with top universities?
- Have you done anything else that demonstrates social impact?
Working on these things can build a solid track record in a short time.
This leaves one thing: Outreach.
This means reaching out effectively to people who need your services and showing them your skills and track record.
Here are a few ways to build your outreach:
- Reach out and network with up-and-coming startups which are scaling up and understand the challenges they face
- Reach out to universities and offer to take guest lectures, become a mentor/advisor to the startups incubated in their entrepreneurship cell
- Network with early-stage investors and VCs to understand the governance challenges that are being faced in their investee companies, and what they expect
- Reach out to relevant industry associations and find out how you can contribute to them
- Get introductions to listed company promoters and understand the challenges that they face; share your track record with them
- Start an association if you find that there is a gap in the market
- Spend time every day to network with journalists
- Build relationships with executive search firms and headhunters
- Explore book publishing contracts with potential publishers
We have noticed that the independent director training programmes out there do not address these things, and hence have created a unique solution to assist our learners with all these things.
But if you give it 2 hours per day, you can achieve all of the above in just 6 months. Even if you can’t focus at length on these things because you are busy, a year is more than enough to do it all.
So connect with us to know more. Join our Telegram gram channel for useful updates and information.
Hope to hear from you soon!