Launch of the Global Research Council

For those who know me, I have a deep sense of curiosity to test, validate and understand. This curiosity has led to years of research into the emerging field of Advisory Boards. Since 2001, it has become a serious undertaking with years of testing prior to the establishment of the professional body you now know as the Advisory Board Centre. It sounds like hard work, but I assure you it is not and will never be. There is nothing more exciting than discovering something unexpected! Even with this body of knowledge that exists today, there is so much more to know, which gives me the perspective of ‘this is just the beginning’.

Creating foundations for knowledge takes time to build. I am pleased to share that the field of research we undertake is growing, rapidly. I believe we must monitor, measure and collaborate this research to ensure best-practice and ethics can form a safe and impactful environment for Advisory Boards to thrive as a thinking system and earn their place for the future.

Keeping this in mind, I would like to share with you what is coming up in the months ahead for the Advisory Board Centre where you will see information released from our research division – the Global Research Council. Key initiatives from this expansive framework include:

Best practice and ethics Advisory Board

Our Best Practice and Ethics Advisory Board oversees the ongoing development of the ABF101: Advisory Board Best Practice Framework™ and ethics guidelines for the Advisory Board community. I invite you to meet our Advisors here and we will be sharing more about the role they play in the months to come.

Business alignment benchmark reports

First created in 2017, The Business Growth Score report is a key assessment used by Certified Chairs™ when establishing and measuring business and Advisory Board alignment. The survey is introduced during the Certified Chair Executive Program™ and enables a Chair to identify key priorities for a business and create tangible goals. A newly updated survey assessment was released last week, now including 2021 alignment benchmarks for the business sector. I am certain this updated survey will help our Chairs to facilitate a mutual and valuable understanding with the businesses they choose to connect with. You can find a link to the survey in the Member’s Portal under ‘Chair Resources’.

2021 State of the Market report

The latest edition of our State of the Market report will be released in May. With the support of an independent Impact Assessment Panel, the report provides insights into the most up to date data trends for Advisory Boards and Advisory Board professionals globally. It provides an unbiased view of the positive and negative impacts of Advisory Boards, as well as the significant growth of the model in business and corporate environments. There are some fascinating insights that I’ve come across in this latest report, particularly off the back of 2020. I am very much looking forward to sharing it with you and thrilled to see the trends that are emerging. Keep an eye out for the launch in the coming weeks.

Executive summaries series

Linking academic rigour into practice creates a new environment for collaboration. Our research team will be releasing Executive Summaries of Academic Articles and Journals with practitioner guides in the coming month. This reference library will have two Series of Thought Leadership:

• Series 1 explores Advisory Board Best Practice
• Series 2 explores High Growth Potential and Good Governance

Both series aim to challenge our thinking and place rigour into our understanding.

Advisory Board market profiles

Every region’s market is different so gaining a high-level understanding of the context of current market conditions has never been more important. Our market profiles provide an economic snapshot as well as considerations for Advisory Boards pertaining to their region. We will be releasing a number of Market profiles in the coming months.

The Global Research Council is a serious undertaking, and not only am I very excited to be sharing this with you because it is something I’m personally passionate about, but it continues to reinforce the importance of best practice and ethics within the sector.

When we have the coming together of commercial business acumen that is underpinned by research and an insatiable desire to remain current in an ever-changing market, we hit a sweet spot. We trade in the currency of being current and it is our role to impart this market intelligence to our global community.

By leveraging our living research and being in tune with the market, it ensures that our executive programs, materials and frameworks reflect the evolving trends, delivering you as much value as possible.

If you are interested in hearing more about the makeup and outcomes of our Global Research Council then watch this space.

For more on the Global Research Council, click here.