Claudia Fan Munce: "The Board's Role is to Challenge Management to Think Outside of the Box."

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

0:00 -- Intro.

1:30 -- Start of interview.

2:27-- Claudia's "origin story". She was born in Taiwan and grew up in Brazil. She came to the US after college. She studied CS and later went to work for IBM, where she had a 30 year career including founding the firm's Venture Capital Group. Post IBM, she joined NEA as a venture advisor, and has served on several corporate boards.

8:31 -- On the evolution of corporate venture capital (CVC) at IBM, and the industry generally. In 2012, she was the first CVC partner to join the board of the NVCA.

11:54 -- How CVC investors fit in the boardroom of venture-backed companies ("usually via board observer seats").

15:40 -- How should boards approach the current downturn.

19:15 -- On Silicon Valley's "growth at all costs" mantra. "It's a phenomena of too much money in the market."

23:32 -- On supermajority voing stock and founder control. "VCs don't build companies, founders do."

29:25 -- The role of the board in strategy and innovation. "The strategy is owned by management, the board's role is to continuously help calibrate that strategy."

33:22 -- The oversight duties of directors relating to cybersecurity. "We can't throw enough money at it."

36:31 -- On the evolution of ESG. "It started with very positive tones where everyone was supporting it." "Good companies can do both: good financial results and good corporate social responsibility." ("this is not a new phenomenon").

39:40 -- On stakeholder governance. "I don't know who influenced who" in connection with Hubert Joly, former Chair and CEO of BestBuy (where she serves as a board member.) [Check out this interview that I did with Hubert Joly for the Sciences Po American Foundation in 2021]. "Great companies like IBM have held up its cultural values consistently for a very long time."

41:38 -- On the evolution of boardroom diversity. "The board's role is to ask questions to really challenge management to think outside of the box." "Diversity of gender, life experience, expertise or age [is critical for this purpose]." "The California boardroom diversity policies set up momentum that have helped improve people's ability to think outside of the box in terms of board composition. Hopefully this continues to happen without the need to have these laws in place."

44:26 -- How directors should think about geopolitical risks in the current environment. "You have to have a very strong local team." "The risk is considerably higher."

45:52 -- What are the 1-3 books that have greatly influenced your life:

1. Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore (1991) (and others by this author).

47:07 -- Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them? "People who care enough about me to give me very honest feedback." (difference between mentors and sponsors).

48:20 -- Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you do, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

49:46 -- An unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love: she loves cleaning.

50:30 -- The living person she most admires: Hillary Clinton.

Claudia Fan Munce is a venture advisor at NEA, and serves as a board member at Best Buy, CoreLogic, the Bank of the West/BNP Paribas, the Energy Impact Acquisition (SPAC) and the National Association of Corporate Directors/Northern California. She’s also a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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You can follow Evan on social media at:

Twitter: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

You can follow Evan on social media at:

Twitter: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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You can join as a Patron of the Boardroom Governance Podcast at:

Patreon: patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License