Enter the Boardroom with Nurole 106. Tamara Box - Advisory & professional services boards
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Jan 22, 2025 Tamara Box, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and chair at Interpath Advisory, shares her insights on advisory boards and professional services. She discusses the challenges of board dysfunction despite talent, and how her advisory board elevated performance in a changing workplace. Tamara emphasizes the importance of diversity in board perspectives, the transition challenges post-private equity, and strategies for leveraging technology. She also reflects on her plural career and what she seeks in board candidates—curiosity and passion.
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Prefer Flexible, Shorter Advisory Terms
- Avoid rigid multi-year terms for advisory roles; consider ad-hoc, rotating, or day-rate models to keep perspectives fresh.
- Rebalance attraction mechanisms for senior candidates with flexibility in commitment.
Joining Interpath During PE Transition
- Tamara joined Interpath Advisory after its KPMG spin-out and PE acquisition to help transform a professional services business.
- She viewed the spin-out as a gift to redesign operations, talent and infrastructure for growth.
People And Profit Are Equally Core
- In people-dependent firms, the core asset is talent and client relationships, so boards must balance people and performance simultaneously.
- Tamara highlights that you can't prioritise one without risking the other and must create profitable outcomes that retain staff.
