From audits to advice: the risk and governance expert helping founders find success
Summary
James’s experience spans internal audit, audit committees and the wider board, from leading audit teams in banks to boards with a fraction of a bank’s resources. In the interview’s words, banks and charities “get the same thing wrong from opposite directions”, though he calls both “rational responses”. Banks “tend to build the control before anybody needs it”, while a smaller business “gets bitten” and builds it afterwards, “if at all”.
Asked when founders should consider outside help, his answer is “yesterday”. That “sounds flippant”, he says, but he has “yet to meet a business that brought somebody independent in too early”. In his experience, a founder spending ever more time firefighting, or deciding outside their primary expertise, signals a business outgrowing how it is run. For founders not ready for anything formal, he sees a mentor or unofficial advisor as a good first step, if challenge can be raised safely.
Three key points
- In his view, “the biggest mistake is trying not to make any mistakes”. Each error, he says, is better treated as a chance to assess it honestly, change something and let the team grow.
- Once a business has grown, he argues, “having every decision routed through the founder” slows everything down. He ties it to value as well: “if one person is making every decision, then the valuation will be lower”.
- He sees a challenge as a question rooted in evidence, raised while a decision can still change. As he puts it, “the people worth having around you will back you publicly and take you apart privately, and it has to be the same people doing both”.
Read the interview
Elite Business publishes the interview in full, including the chair, non-executive director, trustee and board advisory roles it lists for James. It also explains why he says leaders “must understand the difference between a non-executive director, a board advisor and a fractional executive”.
Insights
Worth reading next
The reading below stays close to this subject, often seen from the side of someone else round the table, such as the chair, an investor or the head of internal audit. It shows the wider subject from their perspective, and the questions each of them is likely to ask.
Getting to know you: James Walker, founder, Lightning Oak
Business Matters asks James about the question behind Lightning Oak and why challenge without support is just criticism.
What search and rescue taught one charity trustee about the boardroom
Charity Today asks James about boards, from what search and rescue taught him to well-meant reporting that misleads, income concentration and AI.
Explore your own question further
In a particular business, the detail can change how these points apply. James is happy to hear from any founder, board or investor weighing them up. This page summarises an interview published elsewhere, and is not advice on any particular situation.