How to sit on a third sector board | Sir Damon Buffini, BBC Commercial Holdings & Royal National Theatre Chair, BBC Group Deputy Chair

You serve on a range of boards in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, spanning finance, science, the arts, sport, media and more. Is there a common thread, in your opinion, between all of these roles?

These organisations are full of really top talent. People [worry] about that in the third sector – ‘How do you find the management teams?’ But in my experience the teams I have worked with have  all been really excellent. Commercial and not for profit organisations all have the same issues.  They want to be very clear about where their differentiation is and how they focus their resources on it, how they access the best talent, and how they keep that talent. 

Some say Boards are “all about governance.” Well, I think it's really all about being strategic; being very clear about where the organisation is headed and helping [the management team] focus on that. That's been true of all of the roles I've taken. Whether it's science, or arts, or the CRF. These are really good people who want to make an impact, and who want to make sure their organisation is achieving  the most it can with the resources it has at its disposal.  That means you have to make some tough choices, and that's what  organisations need help with-  making the right strategic choices.

How has this influenced your perspective on the intersection of investment, philanthropy, scientific research, creativity and social impact?

Whatever organisation you're in, you have to determine what your impact will be, and then be able to measure it. In the financial world historically is been  pretty clear that the priority was financial  return. But now, with the advent of ESG, financial  organisation need to prove they add value to society as a whole. Impact now  means something more than just profit . In the not-for-profit world, it's also about  impact - the question is what is the impact and where is that impact going to be? If you're the Wellcome Trust, or the National Theatre, or the BBC, what's your definition of impact? What defines success for your organisation over a five-year period, and have you aligned all your resources to be successful. 

Take the National Theatre, as an example. When Rufus [Norris] became Artistic Director and I became Chair, Rufus was very clear about setting out what he believed was the right direction for the  organisation - we needed to have proper representation of female writers and directors, we needed to have new work, we need to have diversity - and he set it out in a very clear way, with targets. You can say what you want about targets, but once they’re out in the public domain, they’re out in the public domain and therefore measured . That has defined quite a lot of what we believe is impact at the National Theatre. 

Now, clearly, there are other criteria, e.g., we want to sell as many tickets as possible. Nevertheless we are proud of  the broad impact the National Theatre has made over the last six or seven years in terms of supporting the cultural infrastructure, setting the agenda for diversity, making sure that the work you see is representative of the country. It’s a National Theatre in a a very diverse country. We want to represent everybody - in terms of the work on stage some people want new cutting edge and some people want to see more traditional work. We have to achieve a  balance yet remain clear on our definition of impact so the organisation understands  where its going. Its complicated but I think that's true, whether you are commercial or non-profit.

In addition to serving on the board of many great institutions, you also have your own foundation, which focuses on promoting access to education and activities for young people. What are the differences in those roles, from a governance perspective? 

Our Foundation is all about giving young people a fair crack of the whip. We want everybody to have access to art, to sport,to drama, etc. So, we support organisations that  provide music lessons, ballet classes, sport lessons, written word and reading support . We need to know that the organisations that we're supporting have very clear ideas of what they deem to be success. We want to know that every pound of our money that we donate to these organisations is used efficiently. So we're still looking at impact in the Foundation because frankly there so many of these organisations need money for good causes that  you have to support the ones that really are making a difference. On reflection one of the common threads of the organisations that [the Foundation] supports  is that, once again, they've have great leaders. 

In your role as Chair of the CRF, you were responsible for ensuring the survival and sustainability of the UK's culturally significant organisations during the pandemic. What were the most significant challenges you faced in managing such a large-scale fund, and how did you address them?

I have to say, it's one of the most rewarding roles  I've ever undertaken over my whole career. If you think about that time - March, April, May 2020 it was unprecedented- we closed the National Theatre. It was a complete existential threat. Theatres in this country have not closed down since Cromwell’s time, and everybody was out of business. Even if you had reserves, you only had months to survive and  no one knew how long shutdown was going to last. Our best case was June and our worst case was September, and that turned out to be completely  wrong. 

Number 10, and the Treasury said, “We are going to provide money for culture – but there's not going to be enough money. We think that a lot of these organisations are going to go by the wayside. Your job is to choose which ones.” That was an interesting premise, one which I didn't accept. The real challenge is that it was a complete emergency - everyone was screaming that they were about to go under - and yet, we had to invest the money really efficiently, because it was taxpayers’ money. That's like creating a £1.5bn private equity fund from scratch, including all the governance, investing  in the public domain, accounting for every penny spent .By the way all pulls together in three months. That was a real challenge. Initially, I was told it was going to take a day a week of my time for three months. It was basically full time for a year, and it didn’t fully finish until June 2022!!

So what did we do.  First, we created a board which had all the arms’ length bodies ( ALBs ) They were  all used to fighting their own corner, because historically, that’s what they've always done. So, we started by saying, “We're all coming together here to ensure the survival of culture in its broadest sense. We're all working together. Our job is to make sure this money goes as far as it possibly can, and to try and fund everybody.” Eventually, we funded 5,000 organisations across the country, most of which were outside of London and relatively small. We had no fraud because we had a proper rigorous process. We also made the money go further,because everyone bought into the idea that we had to allocate it fairly. Organisations quite often ask for more than they need, so we checked to ensure that everyone asked for the right amount.  Eventually when we needed  10% more money to make sure everyone was funded, we went back and asked each organisation “Can you survive on 90% rather than 100%?” – and that worked. 

The definition of culture was also pretty broad. Clearly, it's museums and theatres, but it became festivals and other places where people meet, like bingo halls, music venues and tiny organisations that were doing different sorts of art. The great thing about this was it showed that culture is not just highbrow. The CRF work actually shows you what the definition of culture really is for the whole country. Culture means different things to different people, and it's really important to everybody. Every community had something that was really important to them, and our job was to try and fund that - which we did.  We just didn't accept that some organisations wouldn't be funded. Yes, there were difficult conversations about how they hadto help themselves and reduce their cost base. But our intention was to try and fund everybody.

I think [the loans offered at the end of the Fund] were fair.  There is  a difference between the big institutions [who  received  a loan] and the small organisations that have absolutely no reserves and no chance of ever creating them. The National Theatre now has a big loan which is challenging but we have 15 years to repay it. Some of these other, smaller organisations just would not have survived [without the grant money the loans freed up].

What unique value do you believe the arts bring to society, and how can they be sustained and supported in our post-pandemic economic environment?

Culture, as part of the UK economy, is worth £110bn right now - and that's a big number. Then you add in soft power, and the fact that we are actually excellent at all these creative endeavours, we are world leaders. So, not only is it economically incredibly important, it exemplifies what we are great at. Those are two reasons why it’s important, the third reason is why the CRF was critical - every community, whatever their definition of culture, has something in it where people want to congregate. They want to go and enjoy themselves. They want to participate. They want to be part of the artistic community. They want to experience it. It's crucially important to the well-being of our citizens. 

So, how do we support it? First of all, clearly, financially it needs to be supported. As an industry which is so important to this country, and so successful, why wouldn't you support it? I think it's great that we want to be leaders in life sciences and AI, I really do - but we are great in the creative sector. We are world leaders, and we really should be supporting that financially. 

From the perspective of our Foundation, I think creativity should be part of young people’s educational life. Not only are there definitely jobs in the sector - people are investing billions into UK creativity - but also, [it’s valuable] to their wider educational experience. So, I think another crucial way that we should support the arts is through the educational system. The provision for that is going down, not up, which is one of the reasons why our foundation is supporting the arts in the UK education system.

Where have you got it wrong?

Generally, when things have gone wrong – and this is true on both commercial and non-profit settings - it’s for two reasons. One, things go wrong when you don't move quickly enough or you're too slow. That goes back to clarity, but it also goes back to the fact that the world has totally changed. It used to be that big organisations eat the small, but now its the fast that eat the slow.

Things also tend to go wrong when communication lines aren't open. Your human relations are incredibly important around board tables. I invest a lot more time now in the people around the table, whether it's the exec team or my fellow board members. In the past I’ve experienced that I'm saying ‘X’ and someone else has heard ‘Y’, and then something went wrong and now we have a real problem. That's taught me that you've got to over-invest in communicating with the people that are around you, especially if you're a Chair. You have to spend the time with your fellow board members to make sure that you're thinking is aligned.

As a prominent figure in both the corporate and non-profit sectors, what advice would you give to individuals who aspire to serve on the boards of cultural institutions or non-profit organisations, particularly in terms of maximising their impact and balancing multiple responsibilities?

First of all, you should do it – it’s fantastic. I love being on the board at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It's great. The BBC has been super interesting - it's really relevant, and it's a part of all communities around the country.

You  have to  really to love it. You have to treat it seriously. It’s incredibly important that you are able to bring your strategic insight into the room. The executive teams around the boards that I sit on are excellent. They all might approach the issues in a slightly different way, but they want your insight- they know and appreciate when they're getting it - and they definitely know when they're not. You've have to bring everything that you have to the table, because your experience is so critically important for these institutions.

Also, whenever I'm Chairing a board, I think you really need to start with the business – no matter whether it's for-profit or not-for-profit or for profit. So, at the National Theatre we start with, “Rufus, what's going on on the stages “ . At BBC Commercial, it's all about content. When you’re on the board at any of these organisations, i believe  you have to understand what is going on in the business to be an effective board member and to create effective governance, so you have to start with whatever business that organisation is in.  Many boards start with an hour of process or governance which is of course important . But I believe you have to have a real connection to what's going on in the business first , so I like to have that front and centre of any board meeting that I chair. The other way I think about chairing boards is that you have your board members in the room for say three hours.  If there are 10 of them that 30 hours of time. The chairs role is to maximise the use of that time.   There is a a tradeoff between efficiency and effectiveness. Clearly, you want it to be efficient - you want it to be really time-clear, with proper agendas, all that stuff - but it's also got to be effective. You've got to talk about the right issues.

Sir Damon Buffini was a founding partner of alternative asset manager Permira where he was Chairman and Managing Partner from 1997-2010. He remained a partner at Permira until the end of 2015, completing a 27 year career with the firm.

In 2020 Damon was appointed as Chair of the £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund which was granted and invested to ensure the survival and sustainability of the UK’s culturally significant organisations. In 2022 Damon was appointed Chairman of BBC Commercial Holdings and he is also a main board member and Deputy Chair of the BBC Group. Damon is currently Chair of the Royal National Theatre.

During his career Damon has served on many other boards including Hugo Boss AG; Wellcome Trust; the Royal Shakespeare Company and Schroders PLC. Damon is a founding trustee of the Buffini Chao Foundation.

Susan Boster is the Founder and CEO of Boster Group Ltd., an award-winning consultancy specialising in the development of innovative partnerships between global corporations, cultural institutions and social impact foundations. Current and recent clients include Disney, Meta, Gap Inc., Moët Hennessy, J.P. Morgan, Bacardi, EY, Goldman Sachs, Montblanc and the Leverhulme Trust.

Previously, as Marketing Director at Barnes & Noble and later CMO at News International, Susan oversaw the transitions of both companies to e-commerce and digital platforms, including the launch of barnesandnoble.com.

Susan currently sits on the boards of the Design Museum - where she chairs the Enterprise Committee - The Representation Project, and the Donmar Warehouse. She previously served two terms as Vice Chairman of the Board of the English National Ballet. Susan is regularly featured as a moderator and keynote speaker at conferences such as the World Economic Forum in Davos and the CognitionX Festival of AI and Emerging Technology, and she is a Consultant Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.