Overview
Boards make better decisions when they bring together a range of skills, experiences and perspectives. A board drawn from a narrow background is more likely to share the same blind spots, miss emerging risks and struggle to understand the customers, employees and communities the business serves. Investors, lenders and employees are also paying closer attention to who sits around the boardroom table and how decisions are made.
Our Board Diversity & Inclusion Consulting service helps you move from good intentions to practical action. We assess your current board composition and culture, help you set goals that are realistic for your size and stage, and build inclusive processes for future appointments. Our focus is on improving board effectiveness, not on box-ticking. For background, read our article on board diversity and inclusion.
Who it’s for
- Founder-led and family businesses whose boards have grown from a close circle of contacts.
- Scale-ups and investor-backed firms responding to investor expectations on board composition.
- Boards planning several appointments over the coming years and wanting a more inclusive approach.
- Charities seeking trustee boards that better reflect the communities they serve.
- Chairs who want to build a more open, inclusive board culture where all voices are heard.
What’s included
- A board composition review covering skills, experience, independence, tenure and diversity.
- A board skills matrix mapped against your strategy.
- Confidential conversations with directors about board culture and dynamics.
- Review of how directors are currently identified, selected and inducted.
- Recommendations to make role profiles and selection criteria more inclusive.
- Realistic diversity goals and a roadmap aligned with planned board changes.
- Succession planning to build a broader pipeline of future directors.
- A facilitated board workshop to discuss findings and agree next steps.
Tip: The most effective time to improve board diversity is before a vacancy arises. Planning succession early gives you time to look beyond familiar networks. Our guide to succession planning for founders explains how to start.
How it works
- Discovery call: we discuss your board, your goals and why diversity and inclusion matter to your business.
- Assessment: we review board composition, skills and appointment processes, and gather directors’ views in confidence.
- Analysis: we identify gaps, barriers and opportunities, taking account of your strategy and planned board changes.
- Roadmap: we propose practical goals and actions, prioritised and proportionate to your organisation.
- Workshop: we facilitate a board session to discuss findings and agree commitments.
- Implementation: if you wish, we support future appointments through our non-executive director search and placement service.
Deliverables
- Board composition and skills matrix.
- A summary of board culture findings, anonymised to protect confidentiality.
- Recommendations on inclusive recruitment and induction processes.
- A diversity and inclusion roadmap with realistic goals.
- A board succession and pipeline plan.
- Workshop materials and agreed action points.
Pricing starts from £1,250 excluding VAT. The final fee depends on the size of your board and the scope of work, and is confirmed in a fixed-fee proposal before work begins.
Frequently asked questions
Is board diversity only about gender and ethnicity?
No. Gender and ethnicity are important, but we also look at diversity of skills, professional background, age, social background, geography and ways of thinking. The aim is a board with the range of perspectives your business needs to make good decisions.
Will you set quotas for our board?
We do not impose quotas. We help you set goals that are realistic for your organisation, linked to your strategy and planned board changes. Many boards find that clear, time-bound goals are more effective than general commitments.
How do you keep directors’ views confidential?
Conversations with directors are held in confidence, and our findings are reported in an anonymised way so that individual comments cannot be attributed. We agree how information will be handled with you at the outset.
