Denise Silber – Get to know our VAB member

What inspired you to become a member of the Virtual Advisory Board community?

A company’s success is tied to its strategy, because, as you know, you can’t execute well on a misguided strategy. Throughout my career, I have enjoyed taking that step back from a challenging situation and coming up with a holistic way of looking at things. This can either confirm the strategy or lead to other options. I have done this from inside companies from junior to senior positions, as a consultant, as board president of two non-profits, and now I would like to bring that experience to a healthcare business: as part of their board team.

VAB’s focus on excellence in boards is perfectly aligned with my goal of serving as an independent advisor in the healthcare industry, and I have been very impressed by the talent in the VAB network.

In what area do you feel board advisors can add the most value for Boards of Directors (BoDs) and executive teams?

Benefiting from complementary experience, board advisors should be able to offer strategic guidance and vision and bring new perspectives on questions, whether new or old, and new topics to consider. This should include identifying strategic opportunities, mitigating risk factors and generally providing insights or areas to explore on the issues faced by the company’s customers.

What would be your dream company/organisation to work with as a board advisor/NED?

My dream company would be a healthcare company or health/hospital system with the flexibility to truly take advantage of the outside expertise board members can bring to help solve real-life problems. It’s not about the size of the company but about how they choose to work with their board. Healthcare is facing a tremendous acceleration of both opportunity and risk. I can support the company regarding a variety of strategic questions related to innovation, creating new services for healthcare professionals and patients, partnerships in the ecosystem, marketing and communication, and digital transformation. 

What book or podcast would you recommend to VAB members that might improve their skills in corporate governance, board advisory or boosting board-to-executive team communications?

There are two publications I would recommend: one is an outstanding Harvard Business Review article that requires only a few minutes to read. The other is a 304-page book with an impressive author and high scores from its readers. The article, 10 Proactive Questions Every Board Member Should Be Asking, leads the reader to understand how he or she can easily help a board optimise its strategic potential by posing some specific questions. The book, How Boards Work and How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World, offers an insider’s view on the challenges boards face and how board directors can improve their value. The author, Dambisa Moyo, holds degrees from Oxford and Harvard and was named by Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World". Here is a video interview about the book.

Follow Denise Silber on LinkedIn.