At The Alternative Board, we’re always looking for ways to make the support we provide business owners even more valuable. That means going beyond what we believe works and understanding why peer advisory boards work, backed by independent research.
For almost five years, The Alternative Board has collaborated with a team of independent researchers from George Washington University and Case Western Reserve University led by Dr. Roman Terekhin, to study a diverse range of peer advisory boards. Their research explores what makes these groups effective and how they can deliver even greater value for the business owners who participate.
The findings give us evidence based insights into what makes peer advisory boards effective, helping us continually strengthen our approach and the value our members gain from their experience. Through our involvement in this research, we are at the forefront of emerging findings, with access to insights from some studies before they are formally published. We’re also grateful to the members and facilitators who have shared their experiences and contributed to this important work.
For business owners making difficult decisions, navigating growth and carrying the responsibility of leadership, a peer advisory board can provide invaluable perspective and support. Something this important shouldn’t be based purely on instinct or a handful of individual success stories.
That’s why our approach is informed by evidence based research. The studies draw on best practices from peer advisory organisations around the world and the experiences of thousands of group members. These insights help identify the techniques that create effective peer groups and provide meaningful support for business owners across different industries, challenges and stages of growth.
Below, we explore some of the key findings from research into peer advisory boards for business owners.
Do peer advisory boards really help business owners?
The short answer from the research is yes.
Studies comparing peer boards with other groups available to business owners found them particularly valuable for learning and personal development. They can also support wellbeing — something that matters when you consider the pressure that often comes with owning and running a business.
And perhaps that isn’t surprising.
Other business owners understand things that can be difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t been in your shoes. They know what it’s like when a decision affects not only you, but your employees and their families. They understand lying awake thinking about cash flow, people problems or whether you’re making the right call. And they know what it feels like when everyone expects you to have the answer.
Over time, a trusted peer board creates somewhere you can bring those challenges without pretending you have everything figured out.
Can a peer boards make a difference to business performance and the bottom line?
While new clients, trusted suppliers and valuable connections can emerge through peer advisory boards, the research points to broader commercial benefits for members and their businesses.
Peer boards can help business owners:
- Avoid costly mistakes and potential losses by drawing on the collective experience and perspectives of other business owners when tackling challenges and making important decisions.
- Strengthen risk preparedness by learning from the experiences of their peers and gaining different perspectives on potential risks within their own business.
- Identify and seize opportunities for growth by recognising opportunities they may not have seen themselves, developing stronger strategies and gaining the confidence to act on them.
That’s an important distinction. A peer advisory board isn’t simply a networking group. You’re not there to swap business cards or find your next customer. You’re there to make better decisions.
Business owners often join for one reason, and discover something much bigger
Many business owners aren’t familiar with peer advisory boards before joining one. They might expect networking, some useful business advice or help solving whatever problem happens to be keeping them awake that month. Those things can certainly happen, but the research suggests the real value can go much deeper. The right peer board can help an owner step away from the day-to-day and tackle the bigger questions facing their business:
- Where are we actually going?
- What’s holding us back?
- Have we outgrown the way we’ve always done things?
- Is there an opportunity we’re too close to the business to see?
- What needs to change if we want to reach the next stage?
Sometimes the most valuable thing another business owner gives you isn’t an answer. It’s the question you hadn’t thought to ask.
What happens when nobody around the table has experienced the same problem?
You might assume a peer board is most valuable when someone else has already dealt with the problem you’re facing. Interestingly, research suggests boards can become particularly valuable when business owners are dealing with uncertainty and rapidly changing conditions. SME owners don’t need reminding how quickly circumstances can change. COVID-19 was an extreme example, but owners regularly face changing economic conditions, rising costs, skills shortages, supply chain problems, new technology and changes in customer behaviour.
Sometimes nobody has a ready made answer, but putting several experienced business owners around a table means you’re no longer looking at the problem through one pair of eyes. You can share what you’re seeing, challenge assumptions, identify risks and uncover opportunities together. That collective thinking can be incredibly powerful when there isn’t an obvious roadmap.
What makes peer boards effective?
Simply putting a group of business owners in a room isn’t enough. Research has identified several ingredients that make a significant difference.
1. The right mix of people
A strong board needs people who have enough in common to understand one another, but enough differences to challenge one another. Importantly, participants should share a similar status and role. Members are fellow business owners and leaders who understand the responsibility, pressures and decisions that come with being at the top. At the same time, their industries, experiences, personalities and strengths can be very different.
That’s where much of the value comes from.
Someone from outside your industry may question something you’ve accepted as “just how it’s done”. Another owner might recognise an issue because they’ve experienced something similar. Someone else may approach the problem in a way that would never have occurred to you.
Similar enough to understand. Different enough to bring a fresh perspective.
2. Trust takes time and changes the conversation
Business owners can gain value from their first meetings, but research suggests it can take between six months and two years for the deepest levels of trust and understanding to develop.
That matters.
As relationships grow, conversations change. You stop giving the polished version of what’s happening. You can say, “I’m really struggling with this.” Or, “I think I’ve made the wrong decision.” Or even, “I have absolutely no idea what to do next.”
When people know your business, understand you as an owner and genuinely want you to succeed, the quality of the conversation becomes very different.
3. A great facilitator matters
The expertise in a peer board comes largely from the people sitting around the table, but research also shows that professional facilitation plays an important role in getting the best from that collective experience. A good facilitator isn’t there to dominate the conversation or hand out all the answers. They’re there to make sure the right conversations happen. They know when to dig deeper, when to challenge, when to bring another voice into the discussion and when to stop the group jumping too quickly to a solution. Most importantly, they help create an environment where business owners feel comfortable being open and honest, even when the conversation gets difficult.
What do members of The Alternative Board say…
Research can tell us a lot about why peer advisory boards work, but sometimes the people sitting around the table explain it best.
When business owners involved in the research were asked about their experience, four things came through strongly: honesty, support, perspective and accountability.
A place where you can be completely honest
There aren’t many places where a business owner can take off the brave face and talk openly about what’s really happening. Your team doesn’t always need to know what’s keeping you awake at night. Your family might listen, but they may not fully understand. And sometimes the issue is simply too sensitive to discuss with people inside the business. A trusted peer board gives owners somewhere they can have those conversations without judgement.
As members put it:
“My peer group allows me to have unfiltered/confidential conversations about issues within my professional and personal life. Feedback is respectful but honest from a group of individuals that I trust.”
And:
“Feedback from the group is open and honest. But feedback is also fair and does not indict individuals or get personal. It is a safe environment, and we can seek answers freely without fear of criticism.”
That combination of trust and honesty is powerful. Because sometimes you don’t need someone to agree with you. You need someone you trust enough to tell you what you might not want to hear.
People who genuinely have your back
Running a business can take a lot out of you. There are weeks when everything seems to be working. And then there are the weeks when the problems pile up, the decisions feel heavier and you wonder how you’re going to keep all the plates spinning. Having other business owners around you doesn’t make those challenges disappear, but it can make them feel a lot less lonely.
One member described it beautifully:
“The encouragement received helps me to push through the tough times and allows me to draw on the energy of others!”
Another summed up something many owners will recognise:
“Running your own business can feel like you’re constantly pulled in multiple directions… You don’t have to do it alone and can get the support you need from the group or from the business coach individually.”
Sometimes the value isn’t finding an instant solution. It’s knowing there are people in your corner who understand what you’re going through.
Real world insight and fresh perspective
When you’ve been living and breathing your business every day, it can be incredibly difficult to see it objectively. Your employees have one perspective. Your family has another. Your accountant, lawyer and other advisers each bring their own expertise. Fellow business owners bring something different. They’ve had to make difficult calls themselves. They’ve hired the wrong person, taken risks, dealt with difficult customers, worried about cash flow and wondered whether they’re making the right decision, and because they’re not inside your business every day, they can often see something you’ve missed.
As one member explained:
“The peer group is effective for me, because the group challenges my thought process, so I can look at all angles to a situation, thus making a better decision.”
Another simply said:
“Having a group I can turn to for advice is huge.”
That’s the real value of perspective. The board isn’t there to make the decision for you. It’s there to help you see the decision more clearly.
Challenge, accountability and action
Most business owners don’t struggle because they have no idea what needs to be done. The problem is often finding the time to actually do it. Customers call, someone on the team needs you, an urgent problem lands on your desk, and that important piece of work you promised yourself you’d tackle gets pushed to next week. Then next month. A peer board makes it harder for those commitments to quietly disappear.
One member said:
“What makes the peer group effective for me is the inherent accountability to make progress on the things we talk about.”
And perhaps the most relatable:
“I am most appreciative when our group members call me out for not following through on a commitment.”
That’s the kind of accountability that comes from people who know you, know your business and genuinely want you to succeed.
They’ll celebrate the wins with you. But they’ll also remember what you said you were going to do.
The big decisions may be yours, but you don’t have to make them alone
Drawing on academic research, The Alternative Board carefully matches each member with a group of 6–8 non-competing business leaders whose experience and expertise complement one another. Each board is structured using evidence-based practices designed to maximise the value and outcomes for every member.
The role of the facilitator is equally important. Recent international research by Dr Terekhin has provided greater insight into the critical role facilitators play in peer advisory boards, including how and when they should intervene to enable members to help one another while also adding value through their own facilitation skills and expertise.
Drawing on this research, and working in collaboration with academic researchers, The Alternative Board has developed a first-of-its-kind, evidence-based profile of the optimal peer board facilitator, together with recommendations for how facilitators can work most effectively with their boards.
Whether you’re facing a turning point in your business or simply want to grow with greater clarity and support, The Alternative Board provides both the space and the structure to help you lead. And importantly, the approach is grounded in scientific research and evidence.
Read our 19 Reasons You Need a Business Owner Advisory Board