Governance Bites #159: Breaking the "Experience Ceiling", with Steve Bambury

Every business eventually hits an “experience ceiling” — the point where growth is constrained by the leadership team’s current level of knowledge and problem-solving capability. In this episode, Steve Bambury joins Mark Banicevich to unpack how purpose-led organisations can break through by “renting” the experience of seasoned operators who have already solved the challenges ahead. They explore the Faraday framework, the power of subject matter mentors, faster decision-making, governance dynamics, and how boards can accelerate growth without creating dependency. A compelling conversation for founders, directors, and leaders serious about scaling with wisdom, not guesswork.
Steve Bambury is a Strategic Growth Catalyst and Faraday certified chair with over 33 years of hard-won commercial experience. Specialising in transitioning purpose-led organisations from founder-dependency to system-driven leadership, Steve helps businesses shatter the "complexity ceiling" through high-performance governance. He specialises in establishing Professional Advisory Boards that shift focus from mere compliance to forward-looking, strategic performance. Currently serving as a Non-Executive Director and Board Chair, Steve implements proven frameworks that drive exponential growth and commercial rigour. He is passionate about engineering an "engine room" built to last where leaders reclaim their freedom. By integrating applied neuroscience, he provides the strategic clarity required for teams to execute "unreasonable" goals.
#Governance, #CorporateGovernance, #Leadership, #BusinessGrowth, #AdvisoryBoard, #BoardLeadership, #FounderLedBusiness, #StrategicLeadership, #ScalingBusiness, #DecisionMaking, #BusinessStrategy, #ExecutiveLeadership, #GrowthMindset, #Mentorship, #LeadershipDevelopment, #BusinessAdvisory, #OrganisationalGrowth, #InnovationLeadership, #FutureOfWork, #DirectorInsights

Transcript

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Hi, my name is Steve Bambury. I'm a very proud certified Faraday advisory board chair. So my background. I guess I've been an entrepreneur all my life. I started my first business way back in the '70s where I had a lawnmowing round. I started my first real business in 1993. So, over 33 years in business now. And I've got some worldly experience in that space. I've 10x'd and exited businesses for multi-million dollars. And I've also been through the process of having lost a lot. And got some real experience from that, and some life lessons, and some business lessons that comes from that. So, for me, 33 years of commercial experience. Some hard-fought success and some hard-fought failures, as well. And I guess that gives me a perspective on governance, and the ability to share knowledge and experience, which is relatively unique in some cases. Having lost it all, jumped back on the horse, and then went and started my next venture. And grew that by almost a thousand percent over the GFC[Global Financial Crisis]. So, being prepared to courageously face what's happened. Learn the lessons from it, and then stand back up again.

There's a lovely saying: 1:17

get knocked down seven times, stand up eight. And I think that that experience, that real-world experience, is something that's given me a unique perspective on business, on governance. And the ability to share that is something that just feels like right now, it's, everything's come together in this space. It feels like the work I was born to do. And today, we're going to talk about that experience ceiling, or breaking the experience ceiling. Hi, welcome to Governance Bites. My name is Mark Banicevich. Today, as you just heard, I get the pleasure of spending more time with Steve Bambury. Steve, thank you very much for your time. It's good to be here. This concept that you've talked about– breaking the experience ceiling – can you start by explaining what you mean by this, by what an experience ceiling is? And how do you know when a company has hit it? Yeah, that's a great question, Mark. I think the level of problem-solving is determined by the level of experience and problem-solving capability within an organisation. So when they hit a ceiling, when their current experience when their current knowledge and experience combined are unable to help us break through that barrier. That ceiling we hit at various times as an organisation grows. That's when we need to look outside of our own capabilities, our own organisation's capabilities, and go,"Well, what do we need to get through this?" As opposed to, just working harder, and doubling down on what we're doing, and trying to tough it up, and get through it ourselves. Right. One of the things with the concept of advisory boards is this concept of renting experience. What does that look like in governance terms? A great question. I think once we understand where we're going and the direction that we're taking, and then looking at what experience do we have internally. We say,"Well, this is where we are as an organisation."This is what we have at a leadership level, at a business level, at a founders' level in terms"of experience and capability. This is where we're going."This is the experience and the capability that we need to have. What's that gap?" And then looking at that gap, and then bringing in the experience that can help us to fill that gap in service to the direction that we're going. Now in some cases we can, in terms of renting that experience, we can bring an advisor in who has relative experience to what the business needs right now, on a basis that it doesn't have it internally. We can bring that experience in for a specific project, or a piece of work, or a given period of time. Then, that advisor can step down. We've got the agility to do that with an advisory board. Where they step down. For the duration of the period that the business needs it, and then it's gone. In other cases, we may need to transfer that experience internally within the company, because it is something they're going to be doing multiple times, and they're going to need that experience long term. In that case, we rent the experience that we need to so that we've got time to pass it on internally. Then, that advisor has created their own redundancy within that role, and they step aside. The business is bigger, better, and stronger as a result of it. Right. How does that rented experience on an advisory board differ from just engaging consultants or hiring advisers? I think the Faraday model says,"We do it with you, not to you." And in my business career, I've had coaches, I've had advisers come and go all during that period of time. Quite often, what I've experienced – and no disrespect at all to coaches, they fill a beautiful role in the business community – but what I've experienced and what I see a lot of is business owners that are already maxed out. Leadership teams already have a to-do list that's not getting any shorter; it's getting longer. We've got more complexity. We've got more volatility. We've got more uncertainty in the world right now. That tends to bring more things into a leadership team's capability. And I've lost my train of thought now. We're talking about the difference between hiring consultants or engaging advisers. Yeah, okay. So, to answer that then, a consultant will quite often come in, tell you what you need to do, and then leave you with it. Yes. Whereas, we're doing it with you and not to you. Right. We will identify the right things to do, but then we roll our sleeves up, get stuck in, and help work through those together as an advisory board. As opposed to just giving the leader, the owner, the senior leadership team more things to do themselves when they're already maxed out. Because that's not going to help with their stress levels. No. Something else you've implied there, as well, is when you're hiring consultants or engaging an advisor for one area, it's very piecemeal. Whereas, with an advisory board, you're coordinating all this stuff together, right. And that's part of taking them on that journey. It's not just getting somebody in and saying,"Here's the answer to this question. Thanks very much."Here's your bill. See you later." It's working through on that journey, but also talking together about how that interacts with other parts of the business and how it all fits together. Absolutely. And that comes back to having an amazing strategy. And a long-term strategy, a mid-term strategy, and a short-term strategy – the three horizons – so that you know what you need when you need it. You can rent it or you can own it on the way through. Yes. So, it's not just a case of coming in and saying,"Well, you should do that. Put that on your list and you go and do it." How do these subject-matter mentors actually change the speed and quality of decision-making? How does that advisory board change how quickly you can make high-quality decisions? I guess it comes back to the experience that you've got. The experience, the knowledge, the skills that you've brought into the advisory board to help make those decisions. When you've got knowledge and experience, you can share that relative to the business itself, because you need to understand the business. Yes. Deeply understand the business. That's the first part of the engagement of any advisory board – is that deep, deep dive to really understand the business. Part of the role of a chair is, as you're bringing in advisers, that you're transferring that knowledge to the advisor so that the advice they're giving is absolutely relevant and specific to that organisation. But when it becomes the case, then you can make decisions quickly because you're coming from two places. You're coming from knowledge and experience of the business itself, and knowledge and experience of your worldview, your own experience relative to that challenge that you're looking to face. Then, you can share that knowledge and you can make better decisions. You see lightbulb moments in rooms where people go, "Wow, okay. I've never thought of it like that before. I didn't know that." That's the blind spots that we spoke about some time earlier, Mark. You illuminate those blind spots, you challenge those felt beliefs and assumptions, and you can make better decisions through the advisory board and through data. Yes. You can validate decisions through data. I've seen that so many times in my career where you're making a decision which is based on an assumption, but then when you go and validate it with the data, the data is telling you something completely different. The numbers are actually talking to you in a way that you hadn't really thought of before. Yeah. Yeah. One other question about the advisory boards and the subject-matter advisers that are on the advisory boards. The company's still going to have its formal board, because every company's got directors, formal directors, and you've got your management team. Where does this advisory board sit in relation to that formal governance and the management team, and how do you avoid role confusion? They're very different. They're very different roles, and it's a great point to make. Your governance board is responsible, is typically looking backwards. It's looking at fiduciary responsibilities. It's looking at the legal requirements of that governance board. It's making sure that we're compliant and we're not putting the company at risk. Whereas, your advisory board is forward-thinking. It's going,"Okay, what about this? What if we did that?" You're looking at growth and performance moving forward, as opposed to, I guess, more backward-looking from a governance perspective. Now, sometimes there are going to be things that we need to understand from a governance board that will help make the advice that we're giving from an advisory board's perspective more valid and more relative to what we're looking to achieve in terms of our growth objectives, but we need... ...between the two of them. Right. How do you identify the right people to rent the experience from? Especially when you know some of these companies are in very high-stakes positions, right. This can be make-or-break scenarios. So, how do you identify the right people? Well, that comes back down

to the initial piece of work: 10:23

deeply understanding where the organisation is now, what are its ambitions, where is it looking to go, and then what do we need at certain points on that journey. Again, I come back to those three horizons. I love the concept of that. Here's where we're going – the big, lofty, big hairy audacious goal, if you like. Yes. Yeah, the BHAG. Yeah. Here's Horizon Two, that's taking us in that direction. And here's Horizon One, that's your short-term goals. Now, you might be heading towards a big goal down here to make an acquisition, let's say. Well, okay, so that's where we're going. But in order to do that, we've got to identify what type of company's fit for a perfect acquisition. That might be Horizon Two. And then, we've got to look at how we manage our financials because we may need to look at raising some capital. In order to raise capital, we may have to make some adjustments in terms of what we're doing within the organisation from its financial perspective that allows us to do that. That might be Horizon One. Then, in Horizon Two, we're identifying the companies that we might be looking at. And then, in Horizon Three, we make that acquisition. So, you bring in the experience relative to what the organisation needs in service of the direction that it's going. And that allows us to make good decisions on the way through at the right time. And not make, I guess, knee-jerk decisions on the way through that don't need to be made until the right time. Right. Yes. There will be occasions, or there may be occasions, where that rented expert disagrees with the decision-makers. How do you handle that kind of dissent? Look, I think it comes back down to giving advice. I think it comes back down to making careful selection of the right organisations. Is that organisation ready for an advisory board? If they are not prepared to accept that there are things that they don't know, if they're not prepared to accept external advice, and experience, and knowledge, then they're probably not right for an advisory board, because they're going to keep making their own decisions. They're going to keep thinking that they've got all the answers, or they think they need to know all the answers. Well, an advisory board is not going to be appropriate for them. But you will get to a point at some times with an advisory board where you'll give your advice and that advice is not listened to. And that's okay. Our role there is to be professional advisers, to share our knowledge, wisdom, and experience, but ultimately the decisions rest with the owner of that business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. One of the other things that you've talked about before is this concept that you might have an advisor that you bring in whose part of their role is to share their knowledge and to build the capability within the business. Is there a risk that organisations become dependent on the rented experience of these advisers rather than building their own capability? There's a danger in that if you don't call it out. I think you've got to be able to differentiate between what knowledge and experience the business needs to retain within it, and what knowledge and experience to rent. Because otherwise you can end up with an organisation that creates a dependency on the advisor. That may be fabulous for the advisor's paycheck, but it's not the best thing for the business. Yes. So, as a chair, the role is to go,"No, this is a project. It's a short-term project" It might be three months, six months. Once we've achieved that, you set your goals, you set your metrics, so you can determine what does success look like relative to that particular goal? Yes. Get there. And then, when we get there, it's just a natural attrition for that advisor to step away. Job done. Alternatively, if that's internally, then there may be a recruitment plan that needs to be put in place. So, you recruit that expertise and upskill someone within the organisation. Right. So, there are a number of ways of doing that, but you've got to be able to call it out so that you don't create a dependency. Yes. So, to summarise the key points that you made there: there'll be some strategic project-type work that is very unitary, and once it's complete, the business doesn't need the ongoing expertise. And there'll be other things where the expertise, the capability, is just an ongoing requirement of the business. In that case, you need to make sure that capability gets transferred into the business somehow, whether it's through training or through recruitment. Yes, absolutely. Yep. What indicators suggest that the experience ceiling that we've talked about is lifting? I guess when you're achieving worthwhile and meaningful goals. You set your goals. Now, whether they might be financial – we talk about economic mobility within Faraday– if you're looking for economic mobility, then there are some simple metrics around that in terms of your growth, and those are your financial numbers in that respect. But in other areas, it's going to be that you've set a goal, you've set the success metrics, you're measuring those, and you're achieving them. Okay. Now that we've achieved them, that advisor can step aside. So that is success in service to the direction that the business is going. Great. Now, taking it back to the start, if a founder or a board of directors recognises they've hit the experience ceiling, what's the first thing they should do? Well, if they're looking for external advice, they recognise that they've hit that experience ceiling, then talk to someone that can come in and identify what they need to do to move through it. Talk to someone that's got that experience with it. I mean, my own organisations, we've hit experience ceilings. I've worked with many organisations that have had experience ceilings and been able to step in and provide a perspective on it that they just haven't thought of before because they just don't have that experience. And that's okay, you know. So, maybe the very first thing is, once you accept that you are hitting it, and you don't have to do it alone, and you don't have to carry all that weight on your shoulders, then reach out and ask for help. Yeah. Yeah. Ideal. What are the most common mistakes boards make when they're renting experience? I think it goes back to the point that you were making earlier. If you're not careful, then you can create a dependency - Right. - on those advisers that come in. So, I think it's important to have your metrics, and know when the job is done, so they can step off. And recognise whether it's a project role, whether its dependency isn't going to be required on an ongoing basis, or whether it's something that is going to be an ongoing capability requirement. Yeah. And I guess there's a blend between the two. Yeah. You know, there may be an occasion where you need to bring in that expert advice to come in to do a project that might be three months, and that project is done. And then they step off, and they might come back in 18 months' time. Yes. And it might be more cost-effective to bring it in - As required. - on a 12-month or as-required, to be able to take that business forward. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Steve. I've got one final question for you – again, a general question. What advice would you give to a new director? A new director. Are we talking about a governance board director, or are we talking about an advisory board? Either, actually. Take your pick. I guess having the courage to say you don't know, you know. Look, I know I've learned plenty along the way, but I'm also prepared to say, "Look, I don't know the answer to that." So, I think not having to, because someone might be paying for your experience and expertise, there will be times from time to time where you don't know the answer to that. I think it's important to accept that there are things that we don't know. Put your hand up and say,"Look, I don't know the answer to that, but I can find out." That's one of the great things with Faraday. We've got a number of certified chairs with a huge amount of experience behind them. We've got, I think, over 200 advisers now. Right. So, we can look at a situation, and we can bring that advice in. "I don't know the answer to that, but I just happen to know a guy or a lady that knows"the answer to that." Yeah."Let me make a call and see"whether that's going to be relevant for what we're talking about here," and then you can bring that person in. Steve, that's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for your time. My pleasure. I look forward to doing it again, and we'll see you next episode. Thank you for watching this episode of Governance Bites. We have more episodes on YouTube and your favourite podcast channel where I interview directors and experts on various topics relating to boards of directors and governance. We'd love to see you back, and please like, subscribe, and share the videos and podcasts.