Entrepreneurial Appetite
Entrepreneurial Appetite
(Black Philanthropy Month) Leveraging Philanthropy to Diversify Corporate Governance: Roosevelt Giles and the Stakeholder Impact Foundation
Have you ever wondered how the trajectory of a company is shaped and influenced? Join us as we sit down with the dynamic Roosevelt Giles, Chairman of the Stakeholder Impact Foundation, for an enlightening conversation on the power of boardrooms and the road to creating more opportunities for future generations. Our dialogue takes a deep dive into the concept of Black Philanthropy, the intersection of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and Roosevelt's personal journey from humble beginnings to corporate America and entrepreneurship.
Board diversity and stakeholder governance form the backbone of our discussion. We exchange views on the importance of transforming boards' compositions to address the transactional relationship between companies and employees also takes center stage in our discourse. In a candid discussion on the challenges faced by people of color in securing board opportunities, we underline the pressing need for a change in the recruitment process of board members.
Our final segment paints a vivid picture of the importance of board governance and diversity. Roosevelt generously shares invaluable advice for anyone aspiring to secure a seat at the corporate board table. We also delve into the necessity for generation diversity on corporate boards, the need for a tech-focused CEO and board, and the art of selecting an organization to be a part of the board. So, please tune in and let this episode serve as your guiding beacon as we navigate the intricate world of board governance, diversity, and corporate sustainability together.
What's good everyone. I'm Langston Clark, founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. Welcome to the Entrepreneurial Appetite special series about Black Philanthropy. As part of Black Philanthropy Month, we highlight how entrepreneurship can spur Black Philanthropy in conversation with philanthropic leaders and entrepreneurs. In this episode of Entrepreneurial Appetite, I partner with my friend Anthony Hevin for a conversation with Roosevelt Giles, chairman of the Stakeholder Impact Foundation, a nonprofit organization that curates programming to train the next generation of diverse corporate board members and CEOs. So, without further ado, anthony, the pilot seat is yours, thank you so much, Langston, for that introduction.
Speaker 3:It's great to see you, bro. I'm excited about this conversation, Mr Giles, with you and looking forward to jumping right in. As a little bit of more context about myself as Langston mentioned, I do do. I am a fundraising consultant, so I work for Graham Pelton doing fundraising, consulting the vice president, working specifically as our higher education practice group leader.
Speaker 3:So, without further ado, I want to jump right in and I have a question for you, Mr Giles. So August is Black Philanthropy Month and, to kick us off, I want to know what is your definition of philanthropy and how do you conceptualize your role as a philanthropist.
Speaker 4:Well, when you look at philanthropy, it's anything we'll do, as long as it's about helping someone other than yourself and your relatives. It's a state of mind, is what it is, and that state of mind means the fact of having a purpose. Having a purpose in your life where you want to be able to share the positive things that have occurred in your life and to be able to help someone else who may be able to benefit from what you have done and they can, in turn, pay it forward.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That's awesome, and I want to know a little bit more about how you became who you are. We know you're doing some great work as the chairman of the stakeholder impact foundation, et cetera corporate diversification work. Tell us a little bit more about how you arrived at this point in your life and career.
Speaker 4:Well, you look at my background, in things that's no different from millions of other Black people. I'm a product of a sharecropper family. I was born a sharecropper, I picked cotton, I plowed mues and now only got to go to school when it rained. Okay, so you prayed for rain, right, that's what happens, and so I didn't like it when I was doing it, but now I understand that it made me a much better person.
Speaker 4:And when you're coming up in that particular environment, it is true that you are raised by a village, right, that village was organization of people and families who acted as one. We shared food, we shared flows, we shared happiness, we shared sadness. That's what we shared. We shared everything pretty much there. And it was all about. It was all about giving, even though you didn't have much to give, but whatever you had, you gave it. And parents used to always say the fact that you have to leave this world a little better than when in which you received it. You might have been given a bad hand, but it's up to you. Whether or not you're going to make that into lemonade is what you're going to do. And so, and and that's what I did I never would have thought that I would have come from picking cotton to technology, and I used this scenario when I talked to the majority groups where I, my pro, my hand was programmed for picking cotton, it's what it was, this.
Speaker 4:But I'm now doing this program in apps. Okay, cyber security is what I'm doing, and so, if you look at, there's a lot of white space between PC start with PC right Programming computers, pc PC right Programming picking cotton, programming computers. So, in order for me to have gotten where I am today, that means that a lot of people had to believe in what philanthropy? A lot of people had to believe in philanthropy. Those individuals took their time, their talents and their resources and help me. Okay, it's what they did. Well, there is no way, no way, no how, that I would have come from picking cotton to program and computers.
Speaker 3:No way. That way it sounds like you really expel that. It takes a village approach right To get to where you are now 100%, 100%.
Speaker 4:It takes a village and one of the things I feel like that we lose in that village. I think that you know individualism has taken hold. Okay, versus that village, it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And take that M and turn it around is we? That's right. So they need to do the inverse of that. It's about we, is not me. It's what it's about, that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. So I think this is a great opportunity for you to tell a story. I know you again. You're working as a chairman of stakeholder impact foundation. As you mentioned, you went from picking cotton to working with technology, and so tell us about how you started specifically that stakeholder impact foundation work, thinking about the diversification of boards. How did you start that? How did you help to build it into what it is now?
Speaker 4:Well, if you look at the fact of the world runs on capitalism and if you don't understand that you get hurt. Right, when you look at from the standpoint of being able to understand how the capital system work, then you know, understand how to navigate it. When you look at today and it's always been that way the board of directors of a company is like the Supreme Court. Look at our slogan in the stakeholder impact foundation says the boardroom represent the Supreme Court of stakeholder capitalism and another slogan is the boardroom represent the stakeholder equity. Okay, and so what does that mean? That means everybody. When you look at the Supreme Court decision regarding a real versus way although the first real test where everybody knew what those nine individuals can do, how to get impact your life, and now, with the recent ruling, okay, on affirmative action, they really now know because those individuals, once they make a ruling good, bad, indifferent that's the law of the land, all right. And so when you look at a company, if you look at a company like a Supreme Court, those individuals sitting around that table, once they have all in favor, I and the eyes have it. That is the law of the land on that issue in that company. And what might that issue be? A equity, gender equity how are we going to who in the community we're going to support? What nonprofit in the community we're going to support? What's the diversity initiative is, as we're going to have on outreach so we can grow the minority supply base. All right, who are we going to promote? What job training and things that we're going to have? Are we going to be paying our employees a living wage? All of that start in the boardroom, and so if you do not have a seat around that Supreme Court table, everything is background noise. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter For people out doing what, people out protesting around the Supreme Court. Reagan and Ruley, they're not going to change it. You know what changes it? People getting out to vote. Okay, that's the power that each individual have. Okay, is that vote? Now you can get change and that's how we see that from a capitalist standpoint of you get a diverse ethnic group, a diverse voice to break.
Speaker 4:Who think around corporate boards. Now what you find is that the board board hires a CEO is what the board hires and the CEO then does what Hires a team. That team hires a team. And so if you think about the fact that if you've got a majority of women and underrepresented on the board, now look at the makeup of the company. Now look at the look at the community and investments that the company can make in the community. Now look at job opportunities that can be provided inside the company. Look at the pay, equity, employee benefits, healthcare, childcare all of those things now can be done, and without having that seat at the table, that doesn't happen.
Speaker 4:So several years ago and I've been thinking about this for about five or six years talking to some of my buddies in South Africa, and the fact that you know only way change is going to come about is that you got to have to see that at the table, and Dr King knew this, not the King state. The fact that you got to have a seat at the table Surely should stated that if you don't have a chair to sit in, bring one, okay. And so the I said well, what we will then do I will do is that I will get me up, go and get some of my buddies and we will start a board readiness program where black men and women, asian men and women, latino men and women, white women, lgbtq plus. We will take them through a six month program tuition free, tuition free, not one Lincoln Payday pay All right. And we take them through six months of rigorous board governance. They have 17 case studies. They have each one of them get assigned a publicly traded company for their case study.
Speaker 4:At the end of that, they have to create a SWAT report for that company and they have to defend it to a defense committee. Being a PhD, you know what defense they. They defense committee is, that's right. That report against this three person defense committee. Then what we do? We give that report to the company and so the company can now see the thought leadership from these individuals who have studied your company for six months and you didn't even know it, and what that does now. It elevates these individuals that the people sitting around that table can see what they're missing out on. This is the level of thinking, this is the level of innovation. This is the level of thought leadership that you leave on the table here. That's what we're so excited about. And we've got over a hundred faculty members Wow, we have recruited.
Speaker 4:Teach this curriculum, because when a underrepresented go into a board room, they've got this whole ecosystem around them All right, it's what they have, so they're not going in that. They're not going in that. In that, in that board room alone, is what they're not doing. That's right. And one of the things that we give each of our fellows we give them this Phillips screwdriver, we give them the Phillips screwdriver, and what this Phillips screwdriver represents says engraved on it upon entering the board room remove the door, or we want others to come behind you. That's right. We don't want to be walking in that room and you well, in the door shut. Well, we got one, we don't need any others. Okay, it's all about inclusion. It's all about inclusion, it's what that represents, and so we're making tremendous inroads in getting companies to understand that this is in their best interest. Okay, to have this diverse voice. First, market. You leave in money on the table by recruiting and placing these candidates on your board.
Speaker 3:I love that and I love how you've thought strategically about corporate engagement, because, on one hand, as you mentioned earlier, I think we think about being in the boardroom as an individualistic type of endeavor. It strengthens your profile, it increases your financial capacity and, of course, we know that people of color give more of their discretionary income to philanthropy, so that's one way in which it impacts philanthropy. But it sounds like you have a holistic model that also supports the general uplift of our community, as well as taking you mentioned prior to a start in the recording taking some of the proceeds and reinvesting into the community. And so have you seen that when boards diversify, that there is more of this corporate responsibility and corporate philanthropy to underserved communities 100% 100%.
Speaker 4:Not only that, mckinsey did a study where the economics for the company increases. The company made more money because of the fact that I was on a meeting this morning with a pharmaceutical company who is providing testing for genomics and so, in talking with they do not have not one diverse candidate on the board. It's what they do not have and what I stated to them. I said that when I went to your website and viewed your regulatory filing, the neon sign for me that stood out is that you all everybody you have around your board is life science, and it neon sign was group think Nothing but group think. I saw coming from this company Wow, that's all I saw coming from this company. All right, and so you have a tremendous opportunity here to be able to do well by doing good, by partnering with various other strategic partners like insurance companies and companies with the health benefit plans to provide this testing so that people can see what their baselines are. All right, it's what they can do, and especially in the Brown communities, you got a heck of an opportunity here.
Speaker 4:They also fell out of the chute. The nugget that I gave them could represent a billion dollars plus on that bottom line. Wow, yeah, and they were like falling out of their shoes on this meeting this morning. They had never heard of it. They didn't have a diverse voice because all of the people sitting around the table are white, okay. But you look at your customer base and what is? It is brown sitting around that table that can give you, okay, discard tissue and can give you what those markets need. And I did an idea to parallel on sickle cell.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:Right, it's how I paralleled it and they were like oh my God can't believe this. Oh yeah, that's what you get when you bring these diverse ethnic people at the table and you take away this group thing. It's what you take away, yes.
Speaker 3:I love that. One of the things that I've been hearing a lot lately pertains to fit Right. We talk about fit of a candidate for an organization or for a board, and a couple of years back I heard we don't want someone who will fit, we want someone who will disrupt and provide not disrupt in a negative way, but provide alternative ways of thinking that will increase our innovation. Because, to your point, you gave a great statistic from McKinsey and company and fundera's research shows that diverse teams are 70% more likely to acquire new markets. Right, so we're seeing that that helps position companies. A question for you because a lot of people are starting, not a lot. Some people are doing this work because it's the right thing to do and then, of course, we know to your point earlier, other folks are doing this work because there's a financial implication for the work. When you describe, when you talk to companies about this type of work, do you use a mix of the two different arguments to frame it?
Speaker 4:Well, there's a new two-train of thought here. Traditionally, board members were recruited from two fields, primarily two fields CEOs and CFOs. That meant we were totally locked out in the beginning of that and that was around. Compliance governance is what I call it, because how many people were, how many black CEOs or brown people CEO that? You see, back in the 50s, back in the 70s, in the 80s, how many black people or brown people could climb a pole and then become a send to the CEO slot? None, okay, zero. How many could be picking up trash and now the CEO of a waste management? Okay, there's not a lot of brown people that can have that type
Speaker 4:of trajectory as it relates to career path, and so we were automatically locked out. So that term fit meant the fact that I go to a school A, I go to country club B, and now I network with that particular group, and now a board appointment comes available. Hey, roosevelt, we have a board appointment over there at ABC company. You want it? Yeah, done, that's how it was. We hope to get on board network and so, therefore, now that we're shifting from the compliance governance into stakeholder governance, where you have to take into account, profit with a purpose talent.
Speaker 4:How are you going to maintain talent? Because today the relationship between companies and employees have become truly transactional. Now it's transactional While you have the the quitting, the quiet quitting, and people saying I'm not working for a company If it doesn't have a purpose and it doesn't stand for something, it's what I'm not going to do. And so they see the CEO pay is like 5000 to one to the average pay in the company. Is what they're seeing. They're seeing the fact that they're having to have partial public assistance. They having to put utilities in their kids name. Go, that credit is so bad. They having to go and get payday loans from payday lenders and once you get on that treadmill you can't get off. All right, it's what you cannot do. So they see in all of this stuff, right, and they're seeing the CEO making hundreds of millions of dollars. And so if the CEOs and your senior management is transaction, well, I can't be transaction based, so we have to break down.
Speaker 4:We break down now and and so it's hard to pump the dump together again and the only way that's going to come back together again is that you've got to change the composition of the board. Yeah, in capitalism the board is the first of month equals is what it is. I mean you can talk about all this other stuff. Yeah, it just doesn't matter If you don't change that board. It's background noise. And you take these, the stats.
Speaker 4:The average CEO CEO tenure in an S&P 500 company is six years. So, if I know, if I'm only going to be there for six years, guess what I'm going to do? I want my hundred million dollars. That's right. Yeah, when you look at you know most CEOs, they know that that tenure is short and they have a number. As one of the several CEOs has stated to me Roosevelt, I want to leave this company with a hundred million dollars plus. The average age of a S&P 500 company used to be 60 to 70 years. You know what it is now? 20 years, 20 years, wow. So it's dropped from 60 to 70 years the age of a company S&P 500 company down to 20 years. Now, if I'm a CEO and I'm only, my tenure is only five or six years. And as an investor, let me ask this question, anthony do you own stocks? Yes, how long do you hold the stocks on average, you would say Ooh, so generally I have it managed, so I don't play around.
Speaker 3:And so Robin Hood, and generally it just I follow the, I have Robin Hood and so I follow the kind of trends that bigger up.
Speaker 4:Well, you got an A-backs and ETF there, et cetera, Some of those well months, 10 months, based on what the asset manager is doing, the money manager and managing the funds, and so if you take that, let's say six months to a year, that you hold the stock, and so now you've got the CEO's tenure at five or six years, the company's tenure is at 20 years, you only hold the stock for a year later, managed here, and the board's tenure is what? 10 to 12 years. Okay, so who has the institutional knowledge here.
Speaker 4:The board, the board, right, the board, and so everybody else. Is short term, Short termism, right. I want my $100 million and I'm going five or six years. I'm out of here and that type of mentality is what it calls a lot of problems in our society and have all these companies, because they're not dealing from the standpoint of sustainability. Build these companies to last. Everybody have their own little self-interest. I'm focused entirely on my own self-interest. That has to come back into play and the only way to come back into play is by the board, because the board hires who, the CEO. The CEO runs the company and the board is involved with strategy in the company on what that strategy is going to be. For the company to do what? To live longer than a human being? Well, a company used to live longer than an average human being. Now it does not Think about that.
Speaker 4:Think about you thought of work for ADC company. That company might make it 20 years, might not? What's the point of that? For me, it gives you pause.
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Speaker 4:And so, therefore, it means the fact that we have to invest in ourselves, we have to invest in our community, we have to build businesses in our community so that we can hire people in the community, so we can grow. The communities is what we can build, and so if we don't take the time to understand how capitalism work, we will be the rug which everyone else step on. It's just that simple. This is not cracking atoms here. It's real simple.
Speaker 3:You're giving us some insight here today.
Speaker 4:It is real, real, simple. And you also, when you look at the standpoint of ESG you heard of ESG right, Social and governance. That's getting a lot of backlash from politicians and things. And this is what I tell people. I was on a flight coming back from Malaysia. We were going through Europe. I had to go through Europe and Germany and come back to Atlanta and we hit some terrible turbulence.
Speaker 4:And the pilot came on and said that we're going to have to bear through this because, I can't add, traffic control can't give us additional space, we can't move from our space. So much traffic out here tonight Because of the planes. And he said that you know, with the climate and things here, these storms are getting more intense, so it's making, you know, flights a little bit more turbulence than it used to be. And this guy sitting next to me oh, what is the two or three degree difference? They don't mean nothing. That's that Al Gore crap. He said he started the internet and then he talked about this climate thing and two or three degrees don't mean anything. I said, sir, to match your question, what is your body temperature? Oh, 96, 97. I said 98.6. What happened when you hit 99.6? What happened when it hits 100.6?. You don't feel too good, do you? But we only talking about a couple of degrees.
Speaker 3:Right, yes.
Speaker 4:We'll talk about a couple of degrees. And what happened when it hits 101.6? And how long can your body withstand 101.6 fever? Can it withstand it for two years, three years, five years? No, it cannot. The planet is the same way is a delicate balance. One or two degrees makes a difference. It's what it makes.
Speaker 4:Now, if you like fishing, guess what. Do you want the stream polluted where you can't fish? Do you like to hunt? Do you want the bars barred down where you can't hunt? So that's not a partisan issue. So when you see these politicians up here talking about ESG on the east side, on the environment, they don't know what they're talking about. And most Republicans, most of them, are hunters and fisheries. They don't want this stuff polluted. What they don't want polluted they want to fish, they want to hunt is what they want to do.
Speaker 4:And when you get to the S piece, you know the, you know the social piece. There Companies have to address the double bottom line. Okay, they have to do profit. What a purpose. Number one you're not going to pollute the water in which you know the community when you're in the community. You're not going to make products that's going to hurt society and your customers, which you would think about this slowly. We are making products so we can reduce the number of customers that's behind it You're going to put on your website. Tell me that You're going to put that on your website Buy a product so you can die, so we can reduce the number of customers that we're going to buy. No, you can't die. You're not going to do nothing silly like that. You know it's what is not going to happen, but you owe it to society.
Speaker 4:Companies are given a social contract and that's your contract, is a license. You're given a license by the government, which is the people. The people represent the government, and that license give you lots of advantages. Okay, you can take on debt. You can live in perpetuity that's what you can do, all right, and so you can use the company to build products and services that serves a need for the community while supporting the community.
Speaker 4:Okay, what you can do and that's paramount you also got to have what a diverse workforce, not a political workforce is what you have to have, in my opinion the Supreme Court, when they ruled, or citizens united, where companies could donate money to a politician, that was the worst and settled legislation ever, because it made companies have to take stands. That polarizes the employees. It's what it did, because prior to that, if you said no, if it wasn't no, nobody asked you for money. Nobody asked you for money. They're not going to ask you for money If they know they can't get it from you. Now you have what Companies can now, based on that ruling, can donate to politicians. And so now if I'm on the banking committee and you are banked and I come to you and say I want you to support me and and I like to get a hundred thousand dollar donation, you're not going to say no, because that's your that's your regulator.
Speaker 3:You're not going to, you're not going to say no.
Speaker 4:You got one of the other ones that, and this particular guy too, guess what? He are not for women's rights. And so now guess what you've done to your employees. You, you have now alienated a percentage of your employee base by supporting this particular politician. But now this politician also happened to be your regulator. Now you see the predicament. Now you see the predicament that this people get put into now, yes, that's where it goes back to the board. If you're going to give money, a company going to get money to politicians, that should be approved by the board and 75 percent of the shareholders. Let the shareholders decide. Let them make that, just that determination. Ok, it's what happens.
Speaker 3:This is a great point, a great time to ask you a question. So, when you think about from your experience and your insights, when you think about board members and C-suite leaders, what would be your advice that you give them on helping to shape their company's corporate philanthropy Right? Like, how do you advise folks to really influence their organizations, their corporations, to support efforts that benefit our communities or that benefit causes that are important to us?
Speaker 4:Well, that's where, again, you have to have people in the room that understand the community. A lot of people are not in a room that understand the community. It's what they don't, they don't have. Again, you go back to what I stated. How long am I there as a CEO? Five years. What's the age of the company? Possibly 20 years. What's the age of the stockholders that hold in the stock that can bring down the iron hammer? One year, two years? What is the? What is the driving force in the most stable of that organization, the board. So you see how it just comes. You can go out, but it all comes back to the board. So your question you can go to the company and you can go to the outreach, you know lead within the organization and that individual have limitations, is what they have, but they've been told exactly what to invest in and what not to invest in, and only if they get.
Speaker 4:You know, social activism, okay, using these electronic pacifiers, I call them. You know the electronic pacifier, right, and we hug, kiss it, we hold it, we tuck it in at night, right, all of those things. And so if I do some digital activism and things along those lines, then I might be able to push the company in different directions. Right, it's what I may be able to do, but as Americans we have such short memories, that's true. We have such short memories because you go back to when George Floyd was murdered and all the companies come out on what they're going to do. You know, a lot of it was greenwashing. All right, it's what it was. Nothing, absolutely nothing. There was nobody to hold them accountable. No, now you sitting on that board and you had the diversity of thought and things and the spread of purpose on that board, then you would follow through on those. It would you want to follow through.
Speaker 4:all right, and I know it sounds like a broken record here, but this is how capitalism works. That's it. I mean, that's just the way it is, and the only thing will change. It Only thing changes, that is the fact that you have to have people on the board that understand it and know that we have to invest in our employees who live in the communities. We have to build the communities. We have to pay our part of taxes so that the school systems can thrive, the businesses can thrive, the infrastructure can thrive. All of those things are where we work, live and play. We have to do that. That's being a responsible company. It's what that is being. And again, the group of individuals that have control over that is the board. Yes, they don't like what the CEO doing and doing. They find a CEO and get another one.
Speaker 4:That's it.
Speaker 3:That's it Thinking about the board and how the board really moves the needle, as you're saying, in terms of policy, and sets the culture and the trajectory for corporations. What advice would you give to anyone on this podcast, or anyone who listens to this, in the future If they want to be board members in the future? What are like three pieces of key advice that you would impart to them?
Speaker 4:Start now, start now. Start now is the fact that if you have a company, you start a company. You also want to have you a board of advisors. You want to have two or three people that you respect their advice. You respect them as individuals. It's what you respect. Respect, and so we can help talk you out of trees, talk you down out of trees. It's what they can do.
Speaker 4:And setting up your governance within your company from the outset is going to allow you to run your company as if you had thousands of shareholders. Every company should be run like that, even though it's a private company. That is going to teach you corporate governance. It's what it's going to teach you, and so, in so doing, you're going to be building those skill sets so as your business grow and you grow along with that, along with other companies you're involved with, working with, partnering with, et cetera. Now you're building that skill set base so you can now ascend to a publicly traded company board. It's what you can do. So that natural progression is how you can go about doing that.
Speaker 4:But every company should have a board of directors at least a couple of people is what they should have and governance like as IBM Get a book on board governance, set up your committees, run the meeting with Robert Ruzer's boarder. It's what you do, and now you understand the rules and engagement. You'd be amazed at the number of board members that sit on corporate boards making $500,000 a year. They don't know, Robert Ruzer's order.
Speaker 4:They don't know how to run a board meeting. Don't know how to do that Okay. And so you start out at a gate on this and it becomes just natural to you as you progress, okay, along your career. And you also want to go on the boards of nonprofits. Pick a couple of nonprofits and go on those boards and that's going to build your network, is what that's going to build? People are going to see your thought leadership. They're going to see how you interact. They're going to see what you bring to the table and now they're going to now bring you in on other boards Okay, it's what they're going to do and also to the nonprofit gets the benefit of your thought leadership and your financial contributions and things as well. And you don't want to sit on a nonprofit board and you don't donate. It's what you have. You have to do that.
Speaker 3:So back to philanthropy, where we started.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's what it's all about in the program that we're doing on this board readiness program, and next year we're coming out with the CEO program where we're teaching the same demographics how to be a CEO of a public and traded company seven month program, tuition free. This is our way of giving back and paying it forward. Very, very successful individuals Okay is what we are. Yeah, so we know how this changes the world. This scales. This changes the world, okay, and we got an international program we kicking out, kicking up next year, that will incorporate the governance in China, southeast Asia, australia, new Zealand, uk, europe, south America. So that will encompass how companies are governed okay, from a regulatory standpoint in those theaters. Okay, around the globe.
Speaker 4:And so, again, giving these individuals the scar tissue that they need and the knowledge and where to go find things so they can be successful sitting around these corporate boards. And because these people that's involved with with me on this, they have the ability to do anything or nothing and they choose to do this because they say, to say they're changing the myth. I'm part of the problem, great white male, I'm proud of the problem, okay, and so I want to help right this wrong and the white boys and girls will tell you that it's starting to go. That's where it is Again. Everything else is background noise.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for sharing all this insight, Mr Giles. This has been like so full. Very grateful for this conversation. Lynxon, I'll pass it to you.
Speaker 2:So, anthony, thank you for facilitating. So, mr Giles, I think about the power of boards, whether it be nonprofit or corporate boards. I know that there are a lot of long-standing black institutions that are nonprofits, and one of the things I've been thinking about is age diversity on black boards, and so I think about, like the hundred black men I think about UNCF, or I think about Thurgood Marshall Fund or even some HBCUs I don't know if the top of my head to make up other boards, what?
Speaker 2:I think would be interesting would be if all of those organizations committed to having someone on their board who represented every decade of being an adult, and so what I mean by that is you can be 18, 18 and 19 being an adult. So an 18-night turn roll should be on the board, a 20-year-old should be on the board, a 30-year-old should be on the board, a 40-year-old, a 50-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old. However, because I think there's a lot of missed opportunities for not having empowered age diverse voices when it comes to our own long-standing institutions and programs and organizations, and so I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 4:Well, what you're talking about here is generation. Diversity is what you're talking about, and generation diversity is also one of the future governance that companies are addressing and bringing the younger people onto the board. Some companies are bringing on people that are in the late 20s and 30. I'm talking about publicly traded company boards. Okay, because they have to have. Because, if you look at, every company today is a technology company. All right, every CEO is a technology CEO. Every company now, the CEO is a technology CEO. Some of them know it and some of them are learning real quick. All right, if I'm flying airplanes, the airplane sits on a technology on the belly. Okay, all the logistics and everything that's required in order to make it run on, make the trains run on time right, and so having that generation diversity gives the existing board members a peek into where the puck is going where the future is headed.
Speaker 4:What is the sustainability of this company? Because the board now should be focused on sustainability. We've got to get out of this 20-year cycle, this 20-year curse. This company got to last along in 20 years. Now when I say 20 years, it's not been that it's going out of business. Yet that could be a big part of it also bought out. It was purchased by another firm. And in order to be purchased by another firm who had to approve it, the board.
Speaker 2:Okay, portia, I want to give you an opportunity to ask your questions.
Speaker 1:Sure, thank you, langston, and thank you for just hosting this podcast. I learned so much and I had two questions, the first coming from a standpoint of. I served on one board for a nonprofit. However, I still feel like I am a newbie, if you will, and so what advice do you have for how to select an organization that you're interested in being a part of the board of, and then how to express that interest?
Speaker 4:That's a fantastic question. What you want to do is to seek out, go and take a look at what boards matches your energy. It is very important because when you're dealing with a board, you're talking about energy, where you want to pour your energy into it, because that's going to map your level of participation all right, and your commitment that's going to follow it. So take a look at the landscape and see where you feel like that you fit best. And then what you do is that you go and get a meeting with the chairman of the board and the president of the company and express to them boards want people. What boards want, is that something that you got to bring to a board on what they do not have? So you got to go out and landscape the boards that you want to be on and do an analysis, a forensic analysis, of that board and that organization, and take a look at somewhat like a SWOT analysis of what you have to do. And then you assess okay, these are the deficits that they have. And now those deficits, can I feel those deficits? And so if you can feel those deficits and the culture of the organization, all right, and the employees go out the glass doors, you're declared what the employees are saying about the company. Then you can go and talk with somebody, outreach that they're doing in the community and seeing how that is being well received. You go and read the 990, if it's a non-profit, go out to the IRS, pull the 990 and see exactly from a financial standpoint how well they're doing on the donation side, or the donation going up or the donation going down, all right, and so it gives you a real good snapshot into that organization under the covers and so, and then by doing it, if everything is, if everything passed your tests now again, you'd be proactive. You send a letter, email to the chair, an actual meeting, and you have a meeting and didn't, and your note to that person. You tell them that these are the things that I see that I can assist with and help the company in that value.
Speaker 4:And any chair of the board that works their salt. They're going to take your meetings, that's what they're going to do, and I think that what a lot of people doing on board, looking at boards oh, I want to be on that board. I'm not going to get on that board. And that's not the case, because when you commit to a board. It's a relationship. It's no different than relationships and you with your spouses and girlfriends and we talk about corporate relationship those things last for 10 years.
Speaker 4:So you got to be very careful. You got to be extremely careful on what boards you go on go. You got to deal with these people. And the same thing goes on that non-profit. You got to do a forensics analysis on each person sitting around that board.
Speaker 4:It's what you have to do, and if the chair says they're interested in you, then what you need to do then is that you need to go and have a one-on-one discussion to each one of those board members. One-on-one. If what you need to do and I'll guarantee you once you do that that is going to set you apart from everybody else. You will be a flying but a mill, all right, is what you will be, and that is one thing I beg you to do. This audience, whoever sees this video if you go on on the board, before you go on that board, after you've been interviewed by the chair and the CEO and before you say yes, go and have a one-on-one with every board member around that table, you will be amazed as to what you will learn and you will be amazed the data that you're going to get back to understand how these individuals think, and that will then get your decision.
Speaker 1:That's good. Thank you so much. I have one other question, which is where can we find information about the program that you mentioned, that board preparation program?
Speaker 2:The stakeholder governance institute Stakeholder governance institutecom. Mr Giles, thank you again for joining us today. I have one last question before we log off. What is one or maybe two books that you've read or are currently reading, that are inspiring you on your journey, that you would suggest for our audience to read?
Speaker 4:One book is as good to great. That is the excellent book. The other book that I read you're going to work at this is the Bible. A lot of great stories in it, A lot of good governance in it.
Speaker 2:And so I feel like that's the best mic drop I've ever had and that resonates with Anthony because Anthony is a pastor. He didn't miss that as part of his bio, but he's all in ministry and whatnot.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of great stuff in the Bible, a lot of great stuff there. I think you guys are doing a great service here and again. Everything I've done in my life have brought me to this point of being able to make a difference at scale, to change the world, and that's what this is doing. When you change the board, you change the world. It's what you do, and so spread the word on this program. Again, it's tuition free. There's no tuition. You don't pay one Lincoln penny for six months of learning in assistance and getting on a board. We don't guarantee you no board seat, but we don't guarantee you. But you will be fully armed.
Speaker 2:You will be fully armed, that's what you will be. All right, Mr Giles. Thank you for joining us again. Anthony, thank you for being the guest host. Great Thanks, Yep. Thank you for joining this edition of entrepreneurial appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Get us five stars and leave a comment.