How to Ensure Executive Team Meetings Are Productive and Efficient Every Single Time

Executive team meetings are a key component of keeping each business division aligned with the larger business plan. This is especially true in the early years of running SaaS companies, due to the rapidly evolving nature of companies within the industry. However, it is important these meetings remain productive.

Recent research revealed that over a third of employees say they waste between two and five hours per day on calls and meetings—with no measurable output. For these meetings to be productive every time, business leaders must come prepared with the appropriate information and projections for all possible business scenarios.

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Here is how effective Executive team meetings can help SaaS companies stay on track to achieve their short and long-term goals.

Why Executive team meetings are key for ensuring the success of early-stage SaaS companies

Executive team meetings are the perfect avenue to discuss and evaluate changes to the business model

Product offerings, business models, and payment methods are just a few of the items business leaders must decide on during the early stages of growth. Each of these decisions is highly consequential and will determine the level of success the business will experience in the short and long term. Executive team meetings allow all business leaders to discuss the impact of their decisions and finalize strategies for business growth. They represent an opportunity for the leaders of each operational department to share opinions and assess opportunities arising in the course of work.

Regular meetings keep business leaders aligned in their goals and objectives

A major reason early-stage SaaS companies hold regular Executive team meetings is business alignment. Software companies require operational, sales, and administrative teams to collaborate on important business processes to ensure smooth and consistent service delivery.

While each team has its own set of objectives and KPIs to contend with, Executive team meetings allow business leaders to ensure that those various objectives are aligned with the business’s overall goals. Inter-departmental alignment is extremely important for organizations to improve internal governance, consolidate key business processes, and ensure business continuity.

Operational challenges can be identified and addressed before they become barriers to business growth

Executive team meetings are not just about discussing forward-thinking strategies and planning business growth. Each business department experiences unique challenges and opportunities—and solving these challenges and acting upon unforeseen opportunities require analysis, buy-in, and support from high-level business leaders. Executive team meetings are the perfect avenue to discuss this so these challenges do not have any long-term impact on a business’ growth or sustainability.

How to best collect, analyze, and present business information during Executive team meetings

Identify the business metrics that matter to members of the Executive team

Executive team meetings are important for business alignment, strategizing, and reporting. However, they are also extremely time-consuming. Employees in upper management spend half of their time in meetings and employees tend to spend approximately four hours each week preparing for these meetings. Time is often limited for upper management employees at early-stage SaaS companies. Between managing business growth, ensuring business continuity, and researching important business decisions, business leaders are stretched for time.

This is why it is important to optimize the amount of resources being spent preparing for and conducting Executive team meetings. While leaders can spend hours going through every piece of information a company has, Executive team members often have highly specific concerns. Identifying the metrics they care about the most can help reduce the amount of time wasted on discussions that can be made through other means.

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Use fully integrated finance platforms to collect business information across operational silos

As hybrid work models become more popular, the information gaps between operational teams will get larger. This means that important financial data is collected and stored across multiple locations in different departments. These information gaps can be closed if companies take a fully integrated approach to developing and deploying data processes and systems.

Place provides businesses with the ability to consolidate financial data and processes on a single, unified platform. Modern graphical interfaces also make it easy for business leaders to see at a glance important financial information collected from across the entire operation in near real-time. This also allows business leaders to find, report, and address financial inconsistencies to Executive team members in a timely manner.

Maintain up-to-date financial records to justify business decisions and expenses

Executive team members often keep a close eye on business expenses and business leaders are constantly under pressure to justify their financial and operational decisions. This is why it is essential to have access to updated financial data to understand the financial impact of every decision. This data can then be used to communicate the benefits of additional spending to Executive team members for approval.

Executive team meetings can be the perfect opportunity to share business highlights and learnings with investors and other Executive team members. Business leaders can also provide chosen stakeholders with the ability to view financial data in near real-time whenever they wish. This information is often presented through a dashboard with an intuitive graphical interface, making this information accessible to business leaders without a background in finance.

Executive team meetings give business leaders the opportunity to view how the organization is performing and make important business decisions based on updated business information. Consolidated financial data can help business leaders deliver this information in a clear and concise manner. Early-stage companies often wish to share the details of their growth with Executive team members—gathering and organizing the latest financial information lays the foundation for business leaders to do exactly that.

To find out how you can use live and connected data to deliver greater insight during Executive team meetings, schedule a demo with us.

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