Working Session Brief · Situation 03
What to expect when we work this problem together · Juan Vegarra
One director thinks you are a rocket that needs fuel. Another thinks you are a fixer-upper that needs discipline. A third has started using the word optionality, which is board language for the exits. All three narratives are built from the same numbers, which is precisely the problem: the numbers currently support all three. I have sat on both sides of that table, as the founder-CEO of a public company for thirteen years and as the director watching management, and I can tell you what a divided board actually is: a data room with three gaps.
Boards do not diverge because directors are difficult. They diverge because management has left the story underdetermined: the metrics that would settle the argument are either not tracked, not trusted, or not presented in a form that forces a conclusion. Into that vacuum, every director imports the pattern from their own best and worst prior company. The rocket director once rode a rocket. The discipline director once cleaned up a mess. They are not describing your company. They are describing their scar tissue.
The dangerous version is when management privately holds a fourth narrative and manages the board instead of informing it. That works for two quarters and then it never works again.
This one usually starts with the CEO, alone, and complete candor: which narrative do you believe, and what would prove you wrong? Then the materials: the last four board decks, the metrics behind them, and where each director's questions have been pointing. Board questions are a map of their fears; read together, they tell you exactly what evidence is missing.
One to three sessions produce a decided narrative, the evidence architecture that makes it undeniable, and a board package rebuilt so the numbers force the conclusion instead of hosting a debate. Where the honest evidence supports the uncomfortable narrative, we build the plan that addresses it before the board writes it for you. I governed a TSX-listed company through thirteen years of disclosure; boards settle when the facts arrive organized.
It is not board management theater and it is not a communications polish. If your problem is genuinely underneath the narrative, in the operating results themselves, dressing the deck will buy you one meeting and cost you the board's trust for the rest of your tenure. We fix the evidence first, then the story, in that order, always.
If this is your table, start the conversation: juan@juanvegarra.com · Back to Advisory