Why Future Board Members Should Start Building Relationships Early

In a recent LinkedIn post, Archita Fritz discusses how mid- and late-career professionals can prepare for board and advisory work before leaving corporate roles. This article reports on Fritz’s LinkedIn post and the ideas she shared there; it is not written by Fritz. She argues that starting early gives people time to learn the work before they depend on it for income.

“The ones who start early get to learn the job before they need it to pay.”

Build from relationships already in reach

Fritz recounts how she began exploring a “plural career” with a list of 50 contacts. One was an executive vice president she had met only once or twice, who had recently become CEO of a private equity-backed company. When Fritz explained her plans, he said he could use her help, leading to her advisory work with such businesses.

The episode underpins her point that a board career need not begin with an extensive network. According to Fritz, the more useful question is what people in one’s existing network are working on and where one’s experience could help. Her account presents relationship-building as a way to understand business needs, not simply to seek a title.

“You don’t need to know everyone. You need to know what the people you do know are working on right now, and where you can add value at that stage.”

Show how experience serves the business

Fritz also relays advice from guests on the “Don’t Wait to Go Plural” program. She says Duncan Garrood cautioned that presenting a board role mainly as a means of personal development can be a red flag. In Fritz’s summary, a company is recruiting someone to help it achieve a business objective, so prospective board members should understand that objective.

She attributes another lesson to Michael Mowlem: investors remember people they have worked with and trust. Fritz’s takeaway is to stay connected to one’s industry and communicate clearly where one can contribute. Pippa Bazalgette’s experience, as Fritz describes it, also suggests that non-executive work can inform how a person serves on an executive board.

Translate a job title into outcomes

In describing her own contribution, Fritz argues that a functional title such as “marketing leader” may not convey the breadth of someone’s business experience. She recommends explaining the work in terms of outcomes, such as helping companies choose markets, make portfolio decisions and deliver growth. That framing, in her view, makes a candidate’s potential value easier to assess.

“Your functional title only tells part of the story.”

A low-stakes way to begin

Fritz closes with a practical suggestion: choose five people and invite them for coffee, bringing an observation about their business to start the discussion. She describes this as a low-stakes way to exercise judgment beyond one’s day job and see where a conversation leads.

Her own advisory work began from Düsseldorf, she notes, and her final point is that location need not determine whether someone can start. The broader argument in Fritz’s post is that preparation for board work can begin well before a corporate exit, through attentive relationships and a clear account of how one’s experience can help a business.