Thankfully, entrepreneurs are optimistic creatures. Most launch their companies on a wing and a prayer and then work with their radically under resourced teams to create their first product and gain initial customers. Sometimes, things go smoothly. Funding comes in, customers sign up, and product reviews come back positive. A majority of the time, however, young companies struggle and ultimately don't survive to fight another day. In fact, most start-ups hang on longer than they should, because, as I said before, entrepreneurs are optimists. They glom on to any shred of evidence that might indicate that they could be successful and ignore or minimize the rest.
Read MoreOn the surface, the job of the Board of Directors appears to be pretty simple. The Board debates and approves the company strategy. It uses full Board meetings, committee meetings related to finance and operations, and monthly reports from management to track things over time. This system works well for many companies; however, if you are a growth company CEO, you should ask yourself one, key question: Are my outside Board Members paying attention?
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