The Conference Board Councils

The Conference Board runs more than 150 executive councils, each an invitation-only peer group of around forty senior executives in comparable roles at different companies. The councils are the peer-advisory arm of a research organisation founded in 1916 that reports over 2,000 member companies and more than 5,000 members in its global community. Each council is self-governed in the sense that members set the agenda from their own current issues, meets under the Chatham House Rule, and excludes vendors. Membership is capped per council to keep the group workable, and is held by the individual executive through an annual fee rather than by the company, though council membership sits alongside company-level tiers of Conference Board membership. Councils are organised across North America, Europe and Asia and grouped by function and centre: economy, strategy and finance; governance and sustainability; human capital; and marketing and communications. Councils meet in person as well as through a confidential online peer community.

Cách thức hoạt động

A council of roughly forty peers in comparable roles meets regularly, in person and online. Members drive the agenda, bringing their own live issues into the discussion, and sessions are held under the Chatham House Rule with no vendors present. Candidates apply for a specific council seat and are vetted for fit; seats are capped. Council members also gain access to a confidential online peer community, and can influence the agendas of The Conference Board's centres and research programmes.

Thành viên điển hình

Each council is a group of roughly forty executives holding comparable senior roles across different industries. Councils exist for chief executives, CFOs, chief human resources officers, chief legal officers, chief operating officers, chief strategy officers, chief communications officers, chiefs of staff and many functional specialisms, including separate councils graded by company size such as a CFO Council for the Fortune 250.

This is the closest thing a large research institution runs to a Vistage-style peer group, and the differences matter. Councils are function-specific rather than general-management: an executive joins the council for their role, not for their seniority in the abstract, which makes matching more precise than in a general CEO group but narrower in scope. The Chatham House Rule and the no-vendor policy are stated commitments rather than aspirations, and the roughly forty-person size means a council is larger than a classic confidential forum of eight to ten, so the dynamic is closer to a professional roundtable than to a confessional. The main gap in the public record is price: The Conference Board says seats carry an annual fee but publishes no figure anywhere, and it directs companies under US$1 billion in revenue to a separate set of membership options.

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