Peer challenge boards

Our private peer challenge board meetings are a safe space where you can debate with other real leaders like you, practical business challenges, share experience and develop your leadership thinking.

Try us out

You are ambitious, enthusiastic and determined to be successful.  You have faced formidable challenges and learnt quickly.  But they keep coming:

  • The pace and scale of change and competitive pressure
  • Lack of stimulation, trust and challenge
  • The nagging doubt of “Have I got this right?”
  • Isolation and stress.  Maybe feeling like an imposter nervous you’ll be found out.
  • Sheer volume of work, resulting in a poor work/life balance

You are not the only one! Why not get together with other leaders, independent and objective, who are willing to support and challenge you in return.

A private board, a business coach and an MBA case study in one

Our peer challenge board meetings, held in strict confidence, are akin to a board meeting, with independent non-executives there to advise, challenge and support you as necessary. A board with a breadth of experience and background that isn’t normally available to most business leaders.

The difference with MD2MD is that no-one is there to hold you to account – not formally anyway. Yes your peers might challenge you, but fundamentally they are there to help you in return for you helping them. If we both share our successes and failures we can both shortcut the process of becoming even better leaders and thereby achieving even more success.

A closer parallel with the Peer challenge board is business coaching or mentoring.  The goal is the same.  You leave with greater insight and greater clarity. The difference is that MD2MD meetings offer a diverse range of views based on the diverse backgrounds, experience and values in a typical meeting.

A final parallel is the business school case study.  Learning by examining a business situation and debating with peers the alternative strategies and tactics and their relative merits.  The difference with MD2MD is that instead of reading 20  pages of closely typed text about something that happened 10 or 20 years ago, you get to interrogate a real person involved with the case today. It’s not theory it’s practice and it is rare that there isn’t learning for all.

Typical challenges raised and addressed

Customers and supply chain

Supply chain problems and let-downs
Important upcoming pitch or presentation
Losing customers and losing pitches
Difficult negotiations
Major project(s) gone or going wrong

Products and markets

Sales have started to decline
Product range becoming irrelevant or outdated
Facing an aggressive new competitor
New competitor is disrupting the industry
Marketing is not getting results

Teams

Teams are not committed or empowered
Dealing with a difficult or sensitive staff issue
Needing to build a management team
Lost a key member of staff
Having difficulty with recruiting

Strategy and risk

New sectors, geographies and products
Culture and innovation
Closing divisions and sites
Acquiring sites and businesses
Integration and restructuring

Personal

Has taken on a new role or responsibility
Feels stressed and this is causing problems
Life difficulties due to long working hours
Having trouble with micromanagement
Has had a personal hit or medical problems

Plans

Considering goals or strategy
Concerned about succession
Plateauing or not growing fast enough

Try our events

If you are an  ambitious to be an even better leader then why not join one of our events?

See some really great world class speakers, meet fellow leaders like you in one of our many special interest groups and discuss current issues in our trend topic meetings.

Core to MD2MD, and our most unique service, are the confidential peer groups.  Groups that meet regularly to compare experiences, consider challenges, share insights and develop their leadership through practical and pragmatic discussion in private.

It’s difficult to understand how powerful these meetings can be if you’ve not experienced one, so why not try a meeting and experience the MD2MD process and ethos for yourself?

Check out our events

The power of community:

As Professor Meredith Belbin identified back in the 1970s, the strongest teams are those that are most diverse.

The MD2MD community is formed of a diverse group of fellow leaders. They may work in a different country or sector; perhaps within a different ownership structure or operational scale, or maybe they are at a different age or career stage.

Whatever their situation, with a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, it challenges you to see different perspectives, to think differently and stretch your beliefs. It helps you look at the challenges you are addressing from a different angle, discover unique solutions and make effective business decisions.

Leader insights