"Learn fast and apply immediately." Prominent directors share three of the most important board lessons they have learned.
Bilyana Smith GAICD is a chair, director, former CEO, adviser and angel investor, who has served on private, listed and public company boards across a range of sectors since 2007.
In May 2024, after seven years on its board, Smith became chair of Fishburners, Australia’s largest tech startup community.
She is also an adviser to research marketplace and collaboration platform Searten, and was previously a nonexecutive director of tech company Spectur Ltd and CEO of design practice Emery Studio.
1. The board composition must respond to changing needs.
The Board: Fishburners
Founded in 2011, when the Australian tech sector was still undeveloped, Fishburners and the tech ecosystem have grown and matured rapidly.
We now have much greater investment in early-stage companies — a large number of startups, scale-ups and even unicorns, most competing globally. The tech sector is the third-largest contributor to Australia’s GDP, and a core enabler and driver of growth in other economic sectors.
As the new chair, with the benefit of experience as a long-serving director, I realised to support this ambitious strategy and continuous change, we require broader thinking, deeper understanding of new territories, and curiosity and capacity for continuous learning from the board. Who we have around the table is critical.
Our board composition has generally been aligned with our strategy — with the skills, experiences and networks needed to help execute it. However, we now need broad and diverse functional and sector expertise, challenging thinking, and access to deep and wide networks — at short notice and on an irregular basis, with flexibility to support continuous change.
We’re taking steps to create structures and bring a broader pool of talent — to the board itself and into advisory committees and special working groups — to tackle specific topics. It is an ongoing exercise and will inevitably evolve along the way, in the true spirit of continuous change.
2. M&A integration is a culture-shaping exercise.
The Board: Spectur Ltd
I joined the Spectur board in 2019, after the company had undergone an IPO. A market leader in surveillance, security and environmental monitoring, it was pursuing organic growth, with strategic mergers and acquisitions considered for their potential to accelerate the rate of growth.
We completed several mergers and acquisitions during my four years on the board. The key criteria for each was strategic fit beyond the value on the balance sheet — including the ability to expand product range, technical capability or markets — and cultural fit.
Rigorous due diligence is a must, looking beyond the initial attractiveness of the deal and testing the assumptions, particularly in overseas acquisitions where regulatory environment may not be obvious. Spectur’s most recent acquisition of 3 Crowns Technologies (3CT) in 2023 was an excellent strategic fit by all criteria, particularly for expanding technical SaaS capability through people, IP, skills and processes.
We knew its success depended on integrating cultures from the beginning. The board kicked off with a strategy retreat including both teams, which created an opportunity to form relationships, build trust through cross-engagement and shape a new shared direction and goals. The transition was almost seamless, delivering the important lesson that culture shaping is the key to successful integration.
3. Adopt a disruptive mindset to thrive amid continuous change.
The Board: Undisclosed
I was on the board of a technology company undergoing digital transformation of its core service as a disruptive growth strategy. The adopted scenario was the most ambitious of several presented to the board by the executive team. It had the highest potential for growth, but a high risk of customer rejection.
The risk was mitigated by the proposed approach. There was research around current and future customer needs, piloting with a selected group of early adopter customers, staging a go-to-market strategy, measuring traction and modifying. It was a continuous loop.
The key was the ability to learn fast and apply immediately. Importantly, we had the right CEO and executive team, with capability to develop a disruptive strategy and successfully execute.
They were given the space to make decisions, which built a foundation of trust. With a disruptive, transformative mindset, the board was able to challenge and adapt quickly to changed circumstances, which was critical to the success.
The lesson was, to stay relevant and competitive in a fast-moving world requires a disruptive mindset and continuous transformation, constantly challenging the status quo. Any transformation is an iterative process and is never truly finished. It almost immediately leads to the next challenge and opportunity for reinvention. And innovation becomes continuous.
This article first appeared under the headline ‘3x3’ in the March 2025 issue of Company Director magazine.
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