NEDs forAll Sizes

Many people assume NEDs are only for large corporations or regulated entities, but that’s a misconception. In fact, micro and small firms can sometimes derive even greater value from the right NED.

In small businesses, an experienced NED can operate across domains: finance, operations, commercial and strategy offering holistic oversight and guidance.

Their external perspective is often more acutely felt when the business is fluid and growing; they can spot behaviours or assumptions that insiders can’t.  The commercial mindset a NED brings helps ensure that decisions are not just aspirational but grounded in return, risk, scalability, and margin.

You are paying for strategic time, not operational hours, so NEDs can deliver heavy leverage: high-level input, not day-to-day cost, with the commitment of a permanent hire.

We have first-hand experience of the positive impact of having the right NEDs on our Board has on our business.

How to Hire the Right NED/Critical Friend for Your Business

Bringing a NED into your business can be one of the most powerful decisions you make as a leader. The right NED strengthens governance, enhances credibility, and brings heavyweight experience, all without the full time cost of a permanent executive. But the key is hiring the right person.

The impact of a NED depends entirely on choosing someone with the right blend of skills, sector expertise, and cultural fit. It’s not just about who looks good on paper, it’s about who can truly add value to your board.

The most effective appointments come through a thorough executive search process:

• Defining your exact needs and expectations
• Mapping the market for individuals with proven track records
• Assessing cultural alignment alongside technical expertise
• Shortlisting leaders capable of making an immediate and lasting impact

At Corvus People, we specialise in guiding this process to ensure your NED hire isn’t just a name on the board but a catalyst for growth, governance, and credibility.

What a NED Brings to the Table

Unlike executive directors, NEDs are not involved in daily operations. Instead, they provide independence and objectivity, ensuring leadership is both supported and challenged in equal measure.

Key benefits include:

• Governance and Accountability: safeguarding compliance, ensuring ethical practices, and holding the executive team accountable for performance
• Industry Connections: offering access to valuable networks of investors, regulators, and sector peers
• External Perspective: bringing clarity, fresh thinking, and constructive challenge that cuts through internal bias or politics
• Strategic Insight: applying years of boardroom and sector experience to guide direction and spot risks before they become issues

The Positive Impact of a Strong NED

1. Heavyweight Impact at a Fraction of the Cost
   NEDs are typically senior leaders with board level experience. Hiring them on a non executive basis gives you access to that calibre of leadership at a fraction of the cost of a permanent C suite role.
2. Enhanced Credibility
   A respected NED strengthens your reputation with investors, partners, and regulators. Their presence signals that your business values good governance and long term sustainability.
3. Risk Management
   They shine a light on blind spots, ensuring risks are identified early and managed effectively, from financial governance to strategic decisions.
4. Creative and Independent Thinking
   Because NEDs are not tied to daily pressures, they can offer fresh solutions and challenge entrenched ways of working, sparking innovation at board level.
5. Strategic Connections
   The right NED brings a network that can open doors to funding, partnerships, or new markets.

The Bottom Line

A great NED doesn’t just sit on the board, they enhance governance, strengthen accountability, boost credibility, and unlock growth opportunities. They bring heavyweight expertise at a fraction of the cost of a full time hire.

At Corvus People, we connect ambitious businesses with outstanding NED talent who can transform your boardroom.

If you’re a business looking to strengthen your board with the right NED, let’s start the conversation today.

If you’re an experienced NED or fractional leader, we’d love to hear from you. We’re actively expanding our portfolio of exceptional talent, get in touch to join our network.

The False Economy of Rushed Executive Hires

When a gap opens up in a leadership team, the pressure is instant.

Perhaps the CEO steps down and it leaves you, the founder there to plug the gap until you get a replacement.

When this kind of thing happens, the instinct is often “how quickly can we replace them?”

The issue is, when it comes to exec hiring, speed doesn’t always mean good. It means you’re likely missing vital steps to ensure you get the right person.

You probably know that a rushed hire can actually slow everything down but:

• The temptation is to move fast.
• When you’re under pressure, shortcuts can look attractive.
• Tick-box CVs. Someone who’s “done the job before” feels like a safe option.
• Reused JD’s. Role descriptions stay at the level of titles and tasks (not taking into account how the role and business may have changed).
• Minimal assessment. Interviews are informal chats over coffee, more about chemistry than ability.
• Referrals from people who deeply understand and know your business as it stands are really useful… but if they’re from somebody with a limited understanding of your challenges and just based on “She/He is worth a chat with”, they can be unreliable.

On the surface, it feels like progress. You’ve got a shortlist together, you’ve got interviews scheduled and decisions are being made.

But I reality, the real questions haven’t been asked. And if you don’t answer them now, they’ll crop up later… Potentially in a performance review or at the point they want to have “the chat”.

The cost of getting it wrong

A mis-hire at leadership level isn’t just an unexpected hassle. It’s expensive.

• Direct costs: salary, bonuses, onboarding, recruitment fees, severance.
• Indirect costs: a loss of momentum, delayed launches, competitors moving faster.
• Cultural costs: morale drops when the team sees the wrong person in the wrong role. High performers start to wonder if leadership really knows what it’s doing.
• Reputational costs: for boards with external investors or stakeholders, a revolving door at the top doesn’t inspire confidence.

In some cases, the true price of a mis-hire can be 10 times the person’s salary. Not because of what they did, but because of what didn’t happen while they were in position.

Why rushing breaks the process

When you focus on speed vs process, a few things usually happen:

Briefs stay superficial. You end up hiring to a job title, not to outcomes. “We need a COO” often masks the real issue: maybe the founder is still in everything, or delivery accountability is unclear.

Assessment is more around “do I like this person?”. Without structure, interviews default to “Can they do the job?” instead of “Will they do the job here, with these people, in this culture, at this pace?”

Psychometrics and referencing get skipped. These aren’t tick-boxes; used properly, they uncover blind spots and add rigour to your decision making process.

Hiring panel misalignment. If you haven’t spent time agreeing what “good/great” looks like, you’ll get five different versions of it around the table. This can lead to disagreements at the end of a process on who to choose.

The result? A leader who might look great on paper, might interview well, but isn’t set up to succeed in your context.

What better looks like

The good news: slowing down doesn’t mean dragging your feet. A structured process can actually save you time.

Sharpen the brief

Go beyond tasks. Ask:

• What must this person deliver in 12–18 months?
• Where does the business need to change gear? (and what sort of experience would help?)
• What’s missing from the current leadership team?

When you align on outcomes, the role often looks different to what you thought you needed.

Structured assessment

Use behavioural interviews, scoring frameworks, and psychometrics. They’re not about ticking a box; they’re about creating a better understanding along with the evidence. This takes bias out and sharpens instincts. The more you do this, the better you’ll get at it.

Alignment at the top

Before you meet candidates, align the hiring panel. If three directors want a steady pair of hands and two want a disruptor, you’ve got a problem, and it’s not the candidates. Sorting that alignment upfront saves months of pain. (We’ve had a situation previously where a non-exec, founder and investor were all looking for different things. This resulted in failed senior hires until they started working with us and we pointed out what the issue was)

Pace with process

Fast doesn’t have to mean rushed. If you invest time upfront, the actual search moves quicker because you’re not starting again. Clearer briefs, sharper criteria, and alignment mean fewer false starts and less repetition.

A story I see too often

I’ve seen businesses panic-hire because “we just need someone in post.” The CV looked great. Interviews were positive. They moved quickly. (And I mean, lots of recruiters will tell you to “move quickly”)

Six months later, it was unravelling. The hire was capable, they’d had lots of success in their previous businesses, but just not in that situation. They were used to structure where there was none. They wanted to delegate when the shareholders still expected them to be hands-on. They didn’t have the resilience for the pace. The role would have probably suited them 10 years ago, but they worked differently.

The board had to start again. Six months lost. Morale/confidence hit. Another recruitment fee. More investor questions.

When we went back to basics, the brief changed. What they needed wasn’t “a COO with 10 years’ experience in leading multi-site manufacturing and distribution operations.” It was someone who could build structure from scratch and work alongside a founder who was still heavily involved. Somebody who was willing to get their hands dirty. A different profile and a totally different hire.

That second hire stuck. The company moved forward.

Final thought

A rushed hire feels like progress, but it usually just pushes the problem further down the track.

Yes, there’s pressure. Yes, there are investors, deadlines, opportunities. But leadership isn’t about plugging a gap. It’s about shaping the team that drives the whole business forward.

Taking a couple of extra weeks to sharpen the brief, align the board, and run a proper assessment doesn’t slow you down. It speeds you up, because you only have to do it once.

The false economy of rushed hiring is paying twice for the same role. The real economy is getting it right the first time.

By Michael Hewitt, Director, Corvus people